Eighteen of the 37 districts in Tamil Nadu witnessed an increase of over 100% in the number of new COVID-19 cases in the past week, when compared with the preceding one.
Of the 18 districts, Thoothukudi saw a growth of 336% — the highest in the State. While 132 cases were reported there from March 30 to April 5, it more than quadrupled to 576 cases last week. Dharmapuri was another district that saw a similar growth. The new cases increased from 73 to 316.
With cases increasing at a steeper rate in the last week than the rate witnessed during a similar phase during the first wave of COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu, analysis shows that cases are also becoming geographically widespread.
As the map accompanying this article shows, only a few districts in the central region and Ramanathapuram district reported less than 200 cases in the past week. However, even in some of these districts, the rate of increase appeared to be high.
In the week from March 30 to April 5, only eight districts reported over 500 cases. Last week, their number increased to 18. Barring Perambalur, which reported 26 cases, all other districts reported cases in three digits this past week.
The districts with major cities expectedly had more cases. In the week preceding the last one, apart from Chennai, Chengalpattu and Coimbatore, only Tiruvallur reported more than 1,000 cases. Last week, Tiruchi, Madurai, Kancheepuram, and Tiruppur joined the list.
While Chennai continued to report the highest number of cases (12,107 last week), Coimbatore and Chengalpattu reported more than 3,000 cases in the past week.
