Madurai
A total of 80 wards within Madurai Corporation have witnessed a dip in the number of COVID-19 positive cases recorded from July 29 to August 7, when compared to the previous 20 days, reveals the data obtained from Madurai Corporation.
According to Corporation officials, around 2,500 tests were conducted every day in the city during the period. They say that it was premature to identify a trend and that public cooperation in strictly following safety precautions was essential to further bring down the new COVID-19 positive cases.
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Wards like Ponmeni, Chinna Anupanadi and Kochadai, which had earlier registered the highest number of positive cases, have seen a decrease in the 10 days ending on August 7. In a total of six wards, COVID-19 positive cases were stabilising in Sathamangalam, Alwarpuram, Sellur, Chokkikulam, Ismailpuram and Mannar College. All these wards had 10 or less cases recorded from July 29 to August 7.
Corporation Commissioner S. Visakan said that steady work of officials had helped to witness the dip in cases- early identification of influenza-like-illness (ILI) cases, aggressive testing, contact tracing and strict containment measures. So far, around 47,000 ILI cases had been identified by Madurai Corporation, he added.
He said that wards were categorised based on the number of positive cases that were recorded- with high priority given top 30 wards which had the highest number of cases. “A peculiarity in Madurai city was that there were no clusters or wards that were hotspots. Of the 30 top wards, currently cases have reduced in 26 wards and in the rest, cases are stabilising,” he said.
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Sellur, Chinna Anupanadi, Ponmeni and Solai Alagupuram were some of the wards that had higher number of cases, but have shown a reduction.
“Special monitoring teams were formed for all the wards to continuously monitor the cases,” he added.
The data shows that a total of 14 wards had a rise in the number of COVID-19 positive cases from July 29 to August 7, when compared to the previous 10 days. These include wards like Shanthi Nagar, Koodal Nagar, Mela Ponnagaram, Melamadai, Viswasapuri, Visalatchipuram, Goripalayam, Loordu Nagar, Avaniapuram, Sappani Kovil and Balaji Nagar.
City Health Officer N. Kumaraguruparan said that the current strategy of aggressive testing and isolation of positive cases will be continued to bring down the cases. He said that around 80% of the public are using face masks in the city. “But, we want people to come forward for getting tested if they display any symptom or have a fever,” he said.
People must also mentally prepare to isolate themselves if they test positive. “This is an area that we need public cooperation to bring down the cases in the entire city,” he added.