Coimbatore district registers slight decline in fresh cases, TPR

Strengthening of containment activities reduced people’s movement: officials

Coimbatore district has registered a slight decline in the number of new cases of COVID-19 and the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) though it continues to top the State in terms of the daily caseload.

A seven-day analysis of cases in the district showed that it was seeing a steady but slow decline of positive cases and TPR. The district had 4,734 positive cases on May 27, which declined to 3,537 on Sunday and 3,488 on Monday. The TRP that was 45.82 on May 24 fell to 33.38 on Sunday.

Officials attribute the decline as a result of containment works done by different departments. Strengthening of the containment activities reduced movement of people in areas with more number of COVID-19 cases, they say.

According to them, the spread of cases within families and residential complexes resulted in the daily caseload exceeding the 4,000 mark recently. “It was found that many new cases in the second wave were reported from houses and thickly populated areas where patients remained in home isolation,” said an official.

During the first wave, such patients were treated at hospitals and chances of spread within the family and neighbourhood reduced, the official added. To save hospital beds for moderate and severe cases, patients with mild symptoms are referred for home isolation in the second wave of the pandemic.

Of the 39,194 active cases the district had on Monday, around 29,400 persons were in home isolation as per official data. As of Sunday, 57 % of the total cases reported in the district in seven days were from the Corporation limits, according to the district administration. Corporation limits also had the highest number of containment zones, 710, as of Sunday.

Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said the containment measures that worked out for the current decline in the trend should be continued with the same vigour. “Cases are declining in most of the districts and in Coimbatore. We assume that the 4,734 cases reported in Coimbatore some days ago could have been the peak. However, the actual trend will be known in the next ten days or so,” he said.

S. Senthil Kumar, who assumed office as the Deputy Director Health Services on Saturday, said the Health Department has been working full-fledged to bring down new infections.