COVID-19 positivity rate in the district showed a marginal decline in the last fortnight since the administration imposed additional lockdown restrictions.
District Collector G.S. Sameeran had imposed restrictions starting August 2 to contain the infection spread in the district.
While restricting the business hours of commercial establishments till 5 p.m., he had also said that shops other than those selling milk, vegetables and medicines on Cross Cut Road, Gandhipuram 5th,6th and 7th streets, Oppanakara Street, Ramamoorthy Street, Saramedu Road, Rice Mill Road and N.P. Itteri Road, and at Thudiyalur Junction and Ellai Thottam Junction would remain shut on Sundays. This was to be in addition to what the State Government had said. In the fortnight, the positivity rate had comedown marginally from 1.99 to 1.93. The period also saw the number of cases come down from 226 to 205.
Commenting the dip in positivity rate and positive case count, Mr. Sameeran said though both the indicators had declined during the additional restriction period, it would not be right to directly relate those to the additional restriction alone.
“It is because of multifarious factors that there is a drop in both the indicators. The administration imposing additional restriction is one of them,” he said and added that the fortnight period was too small a period to comment on the dip, at least from the epidemiological point of view.
During the period, the administration had increased the number of vaccinations a day, from 19,000 to 23,000.
With the State Government announcing further relaxations to the lockdown, the Coimbatore district administration was talking to stakeholders – representatives from the traders’ associations, cinema owners’ association, hoteliers among others – to see if the administration should continue with the additional restriction or offer some relaxation or completely do away with it.
