Positive sign as all 15 city Corpn zones record negative growth rate

Dip in cases indicates improvement in situation at worst-hit Royapuram, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar too

CHENNAI: All the 15 zones in the Greater Chennai Corporation have now registered negative growth rate for new COVID-19 cases. According to the latest data released by the civic body, the overall average growth rate of new cases for the past seven days until Thursday was at -5.2 per cent.

“The growth rate of new cases is calculated as per the method prescribed by ICMR. Negative growth rate means that the number of new cases is decreasing,” a Chennai Corporation official said. Among the zones, Manali has performed well by recording -13.3 per cent growth rate. Interestingly, the worst affected zones such as Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar have recorded lesser growth rate of new cases than the city’s average. These zones have recorded -7.4 and -5.6 per cent growth rates respectively.

Earlier, Kodambakkam, Perungudi and Alandur zones had recorded positive growth rate of new cases, which means more cases, but now they too have turned around. The average growth rate of the city during the seven-day period that ended on Thursday is better than the growth rate recorded during the same time-period that ended on July 6 when the growth rate was at -2.4 per cent.

Recently, the civic body had released a data of doubling time suggesting slowed down infection rate of the virus in the city. As per the data, the city’s doubling rate has been improved to 25 days. On Friday, Chennai reported a total of 1,205 positive cases while Chengalpattu and Tiruvallur reported 249 and 220 cases respectively. At least 27 deaths were reported in the city during the past 24 hours. So far, the city has recorded 74,969 positive cases of which only 18,616 persons are being treated, which is only 24.83 per cent.

Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said, “Lockdown was instrumental in two things: Ensuring that people were not unnecessarily moving about and people who were positive did not spread it. This was coupled with fever camps along with testing of persons with symptoms.”