Chennai: Chennai is now witnessing the highest number of fresh Covid-19 cases every day after Mumbai in April and May and capital city Delhi in June, and the fastest growth in cases among the worst affected cities. June 30, Chennai had almost 2,400 new cases – the highest in India, and second highest in the world after Los Angeles.
Delhi, which has the highest number of cases among Indian cities, recorded 2,200 new cases on the same day.
Chennai recorded its first case March 18. It is India’s sixth-largest city in terms of population and has had a consistently high number of cases. Driven in the early days by incoming international travelers and further aggravated by the Tablighi Jamaat-linked cluster in early April, the state saw over 1,200 cases, which were traced and isolated.
Beats Delhi, Mumbai in daily cases
June 30, Chennai had the highest number of new cases for any city in India for the second straight day, beating Delhi, and Mumbai, which now has substantially fewer new cases after surging through all of May. Since June 3, Chennai has been reporting over 1,000 new cases every single day, and for the last two days of June, it reported over 2,000 new cases, comparable to Delhi, despite having less than half its population triggering grave concerns.
Doubling rates steeply reduced
The doubling time of cases, i.e. the number of days needed for total cases to double, grew steadily through June, but since June 21, the trend was reversed. Cases are now growing fastest in Chennai among the three most affected cities, doubling every 17 days. In Delhi, cases are doubling every 18 days, while in Mumbai, it is 41 days.
While testing data for Chennai is not available separately, Tamil Nadu as a whole has ramped up testing significantly. Over the month of June, it has doubled its tests, and having conducted over 1 million tests so far, has tested more than any other state. But growing test positivity rates suggest that it isn’t testing alone that explains the high numbers. The surge rate at the moment seems to be winning against the rate at which it is testing.
PNN/Agencies