Chennai: Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash today dropped hints at more relaxations of lockdown measures in Chennai in the coming days.
He said that normalcy has to return to ensure that the economy is restored. “All works are being carried out to ensure that more relaxations are made. Nearly Rs 400 crore has been spent for the corona prevention works in Chennai. For testing alone, Rs 200 crore has been spent and Rs 30 crore has been spent for food for staff,” he said.
He also said that 90 per cent people in Chennai are wearing masks. “This is not enough, all people should wear mask to overcome this pandemic,” he said.
Prakash said that out of the 13,000 tests done everyday only 1,200 people are being tested positive. “Initially Chennai saw increase in cases, but it has come down now. Yesterday alone 1,243 people were tested positive. Earlier we used to get close to 1,000 cases even for 4,000 samples. So far five lakh samples have been tested in Chennai alone,” he added.
It may be noted that the Greater Chennai Corporation has started taking antibody tests to assess the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic further.
The civic body has launched the antibody tests in the city beginning with its field staff in the first phase. According to reports, 28 out of the 564 people tested were found to have the immunoglobulins in their blood that are currently fighting the invading virus, which means they may possibly be carrying the virus.
Following this, the Corporation has decided to carry the RT-PCR test for confirmation. The civic body has said the tests would be scaled up in the days to come to cover the public as well.
Tamilnadu recorded 4,538 new cases of the novel coronavirus as well as 3,391 discharges on Friday. The State witnessed the most number of deaths in a single day as 79 patients succumbed to the infection.
Tamilnadu tested the highest number of patients so far for the coronavirus on Friday. The State collected 48,669 samples from 47,539 people for Covid-19 testing.