Numbers of COVID clusters and size is increasing now in Chennai city
Posted on: 24/Mar/2021 9:17:37 AM
The number of new Covid-19 cases reported on Tuesday, 23rd March 2021 was 532 and this was the highest ever since 17th November 2020. The health department officials were of the view that Chennai city has been witnessing a spike in both number of clusters and size.
It must be recalled that on13th March people from 4 families tested positive and on 17th March there were 28 positive cases from 8 clusters. The residents of Chennai were shocked on Monday when they came to know that 3 branches of a private company had as many as40 positive cases. Just last week, a dozen people tested Covid-19 positive from a bank. After luncheons, parties, weddings and funerals etc, the clusters were seen in the homes in Chennai.
The shocking piece of information is that when people take the infection to their workplaces then the clusters could become huge. This was brought out by Dr. T.S. Selvavinayagam, director of Public Health. He explained that sitting together for long time periods in a closed air-conditioned room would spread the infection. Burden could be lowered by wearing facemasks and by maintaining social distancing.
Over the past few weeks, new rising clusters have resulted in a spike in the average number of fresh cases reported in Chennai. Chennai reported an average of 144 cases per day from 12th to 18th of February and in the next week the numbers went up to 152. Chennai had as many as362 fresh cases per day from 12th March to 18th March. In that time, there were 2288 new cases in Chennai and 17 persons passed away due to the infection. Last week�s total has been surpassed by Chennai city in the last 5 days. As many as2373 cases were reported in Chennai between 19th March and 23rd March. The increase in the clusters now has reminded the officers of May month in 2020 when the teams were busy tracing down the clusters from many north Chennai streets.
Truth is that the Chennai Corporation on average tracks down atleast 30 close contacts of every Covid-19 positive patient. As per a senior health department officer belonging to GCC, if there are more clusters then the health staff must track down more people and make sure that they were tested for the infection. He explained that currently GCC tests 30 persons for every positive case and the active cases have increased in all the zones.
