COVID infection spread slowing down in Chennai, doubling time increased
Posted on: 12/Oct/2020 9:03:29 AM
The latest news is the spread of Coronavirus infection in Chennai has slowed down now with the increase in the doubling time now.
Point is that this news comes at a time when more than 1200 new Covid-1 positive cases are being reported in Chennai in a day. The official data from GCC has shown that the doubling time or the time that is needed for the Coronavirus cases to double has shown a positive trend when compared to August month. Earlier, on 3rd August, the doubling time was 63.3 days but on 9th October the doubling time was 110 days.
It must be taken into account that in August month the zone with lowest doubling time was Ambattur zone with 36.5 days but in October the zone with lowest doubling time is Perungudi with 84.8 days. For some zones the doubling rate was either stagnated or has reduced.
Zones like Royapuram and Tondiarpet have almost the same doubling time now but in the month of August Royapuram zone had doubling time of 140 days and Tondiarpet zone had 128 days.
Information is that In the month of August Manali zone had a doubling time of 158 days and this zone had the lowest number of Coronavirus positive cases in Chennai city. In October, the spread of Coronavirus infection has increased and the doubling time has reduced to 102 days.
According to Mr. G. Prakash, Chennai Corporation commissioner, GCC has been watching the doubling time of the zones and would focus where the infection spread was faster.
He hinted that the focus would be in terms of samples collected plus number of containment zones, medical camps and patient management systems. There has been no major increase in the number of Coronavirus cases in Chennai despite opening up. This was as per Mr. P. Ganeshkumar, epidemiologist from NIE.
He spoke about the testing being intense and also about the importance of contact tracing. Industries, workplaces and vendors are being given huge importance now. Fact is that the commercial hubs have been responsible for increase in the cases in the central region of Chennai.
