In the list of COVID-19-affected districts, Coimbatore stood third on April 26 with 1,056 and of those nearly 60% was from the city.
The city with 100 wards and about 18 lakh population witnessed an exponential increase in cases in March and April, as data available with the authorities concerned show. On April 1, the number of positive case was 143. As of April 26, the number stood at 495. This was an increase of 246%.
Of the five zones, East Zone recorded the highest number – 127 and was very closely followed by North Zone 126.
The situation in March was no different. The number of positive cases went up from 16 on March 1 to 182 on March 31, an increase of 1,037%. The number of persons who reported positive in that month stood at 1,778. Once again, East Zone and North Zone were at the top spots with 492 cases and 487 cases respectively.
Sources monitoring the cases said the increase in cases in March and April was not due to election, as popularly believed. The increase was clearly due to the second wave as evident from the increase in cases and pattern of increase in States that did not go through election – Maharashtra, Delhi or Andhra Pradesh.
As of April 26, the city had 3,943 active cases – 2,962 in various hospitals or COVID Care Centres and 981 in home isolation.
Given the wave, the number could go up in the city in the next few days and perhaps weeks, the sources said and added that though the district administration and Coimbatore Corporation was fully equipped to dealt with emergencies, the only way to control the spread was for people to follow COVID appropriate behaviour like wearing mask, washing hands and maintaining physical distance.
The Corporation on its part had stepped up vaccination drive and sample collection. On Monday, it recorded 1.07 lakh take vaccine and collect 4,816 samples.
It would continue to step up sample collection and hold more fever clinics, the sources said and appealed to people to attend camps if they experienced influenza like infection symptoms, take vaccination and follow all the State government guidelines.
