NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, AUG 9
As many as 5,994 fresh COVID cases were reported on Sunday, taking the tally to 2,96,901 while 119 fatalities pushed the death toll to 4,927.
Dear Chennaites,
Greater Chennai Corporation aims at providing quality medical care to one and all. People who are in need of Dialysis treatment, can make use of these GCC's dialysis facilities.#GCC #Chennai #ChennaiCorporation pic.twitter.com/xCqNBD8FG0
— Greater Chennai Corporation (@chennaicorp) August 9, 2020
Of the dead, as many as 103 had co-morbidities and 16 none. A 11-year old boy, two 90-year old men, a 23-year-old man and two 40-year old women were among those who succumbed to the virus.
Chennai’s share in the state’s death toll was 2,302. Today is the seventh day of 100 plus deaths in Tamil Nadu. The number of tests today was 70,186, the highest in a single day so far in the state and in total 32,25,805 tests have been done and all the tests were RT-PCR based, a state COVID bulletin said.
While active cases were 53,336, as many as 6,020 patients were discharged from various hospitals and cumulatively 2,38,638 people have recovered. In the cumulative state count of 2,96,901 cases, Chennai share was 1,09,117. The over 5,900 new cases today include 989 from Chennai, and the infections in three districts near here (Chengelpet, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur) together stood at 1,186, crossing the state capital’s count.
Chennai’s COVID-19 test positivity rate may fall to 6 per cent, says Corporation Commissioner
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#GCC #Chennai #ChennaiCorporation pic.twitter.com/GzkUdq5BLD— Greater Chennai Corporation (@chennaicorp) August 9, 2020
The COVID-19 test positivity rate in Chennai may drop to about six per cent by the end of this month and concerted efforts were on to accomplish it, Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash has said.
The positivity rate, gradually has dipped to about 8.50 percent to 9.50 per cent now from 14-15 per cent last month, he said. Another good outcome to several efforts was that the doubling time has improved to 72.2 days in Chennai from 65 days a week ago and in divisions under north Chennai, it was a welcome 140-150 days, he said.
Efforts were on to replicate the improvement seen in the north of the city in other areas with relatively higher cases, he said. Soon, Chennai would complete eight lakh RT-PCR tests and tests per day again touched 14,000 on Friday from about 12,000 on an average, he said.
“Experts feel that bringing the positivity rate to five per cent could be a milestone. But it cannot happen suddenly and we could only hope for a gradual reduction. Based on our field work and according to the views of doctors, the positivity rate in Chennai could go further down somewhere between six per cent to 6.5 per cent by the end of this month,” he told reporters on Saturday.
Concerted efforts were on to achieve better outcomes be it positivity or mortality rate, he said. Illustrating his point, he said specific interventions like admitting people with breathlessness and those with Severe Acute Respiratory Illnesses to hospitals directly instead of waiting for tests to be completed has proved to be a “turning point.” So far, since July 25, about 675 such people have been admitted to hospitals and on an average, everyday about 20 people were being sent to healthcare facilities, he said.
While the mortality rate in Chennai was presently 2.12 per cent, a priority was to bring it down to 1.5 per cent. Significantly, on August 7, Chennai’s fresh coronavirus cases dipped below the 1,000 mark for the first time in the past over two months. The state capital had recorded 809 cases on June 2 and from the next day, the infection count crossed the 1,000 mark. On Friday, Chennai saw 984 new cases and the tally stood at 1,07,109, the Commissioner said.
