Tamil Nadu Covid Cases: Active Covid cases jump to 728 in two weeks in Tamil Nadu Coimbatore News – Times of India

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu added 1,661 new cases on Monday as against 1,697 cases reported on Sunday. But, the active cases on Sunday rose to 16,984 as compared to 16,969.
In the last two weeks, active cases in TN increased to 728 from 16,258 on September 6, when there were 1,556 new cases. The health department has asked all districts to continue surveillance and targeted testing. The new clusters reported from schools, family events, festivals and funerals have pushed up cases in Chennai, Thanjavur, Erode and Chengalpet.
On Monday, Chennai (206) and Coimbatore (211) were the only two districts with more than 200 cases. The sharpest increase in active cases in the last two weeks was in Chennai, where it rose from 1,772 on September 6 to 2,043 on Monday. Erode and Chengalpet, which continue to report cases in the triple digits, have 1,405 and 1,252 active patients. Health secretary J Radhakrishnan said, “We are seeing slow growth in some districts, but if we do not control it soon then the cases will increase geometrically and then rapidly.”
The weekly average positivity rate – the number of people tested positive over the total number of people tested – rose from 1.8% on September 9 to 2.4% 10 days later. In TN, the positivity rate increased from 1% to 1.1% during the same period. At least 11 districts, including Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Chengalpet, had positivity rates higher than the state average. The positivity rate in Chennai was 0.9%. Director of Public Health Dr TS Selvavinayagam said, “The investigation has shown violation of SOPS including wearing of masks and social distancing norms.”
Officials say this was not entirely unexpected. “We expected the decline to slow as we eased restrictions. While we are asking people to follow pandemic protocols, health officials are doing fever monitoring and contact tracing,” he said. On an average, at least 1.5 lakh people are tested daily in the state.
With 23 deaths on Monday, the death toll rose to 35,360. Case tally touched 26.47 lakh. Of the 23 deaths, Thanjavur reported five and Nagapattinam four. There were two people each from Namakkal and Kallakurichi.