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For the first time, the test positivity rate or TPR for COVID now below 5% in Chennai city
Posted on: 20/Nov/2020 9:33:08 AM
More than seven months have passed since Coronavirus first made its presence felt in Chennai city.
The latest news is for the first time after more than 7 months the TPR or test positivity rate has gone below 5percent in the Chennai city. It has been brought to light that the testing must be at a level to ensure TPR is below 5percent. The ICMR and WHO also recommend this only. The spread of the infection and stabilising of the spread is revealed by TPR.
As many as10411 people were tested for Covid-19 on Wednesday by GCC. Out of these, as many as 479 tested positive for Covid-19 infection and it means a TPR of 4.6percent.
It must not be forgotten that in the months of May and June, Chennai recorded TPR of 30%. It is now mentioned by some senior officials belonging to GCC that there would not be any relaxation in the testing and the civic body would be increasing the testing till 15th December. Before deepavali, TPR in Chennai remained around 5% and TPR was 6% in the weekend when daily testing dropped to 7000.
The reason for that was due to many people leaving Chennai for deepavali and lesser number of people visiting the fever camps and this led to dropping in the daily testing.
The people have now come back to Chennai and the daily testing has above10000. It was mentioned by GCC that daily testing would be touching 12000. It is well known that Mr. J. Radhakrishnan, health secretary had given instructions to increase the testing to ensure that any post-festival spike was identified early.
A senior officer belonging to GCC was unsure and said that it was not safe to say that Chennai had gone past the peak. He explained that the incubation period of 30 days would be checked. He was of the opinion that if the numbers remained stable then the testing could be relaxed after 15th December.
The viral transmission has been successfully brought under the control now and this was as per another official. He added that GCC has been taking efforts to lower this threshold over time.
