The graph of COVID-19 infection rate in Chennai has been descending for the past few days as the city has been reporting below 1500 cases this week while it has recorded nearly 2000 cases every day last week in what has become a positive sign that the authorities attribute to the sequel of the complete lockdown, aggressive testings, and fever camps conducted by the Greater Chennai Corporation. 

One of the good signs is that the city has reported an increase in the doubling time of COVID-19 cases across all the fifteen zones. 'Doubling time' is the parameter that measures the time taken for the number of positive cases to get doubled in the city. According to the corporation, the city's doubling time stood at 25.42 days on July 6 based on the cases reported before seven days. 

Relatively, the doubling time recorded on July 6 is higher than what was reported in the previous months. In June month, the cases get doubled in 12 days while May took 4.4 days and the cases in the city got doubled in three days in April. According to the reports, the current trend of 25.42 days has shown that the grounds of rapid transmission of the virus in the city are getting reduced.

The major hotspots have also reported this welcoming trend and the authorities say that the reason for the development is due to pacing up testing, containment measures, fever camps, and lockdown in the city. The corporation stated that it has been carrying out strategies for collecting and testing more samples, detecting more cases with Influenza-like Illness (ILI) at the early stage, conducting fever camps, and screening centers across the city. 

In the past week, the city has tested over 10,000 samples in a day and the measures of extensive contact tracing and community intervention programmes in the city have reduced the transmission. However, according to the reports, the civic body would be burdened with the challenge of handling and tackling the spread in the lockdown relaxations.

While the authorities say that the door-to-door survey and the testing have carried out in the city in the lockdown tenure as most of the people remained home, the lockdown relaxations that came into effect on July 6 and the movements of people and traffic have sent fear among the residents whether they would get contracted to the virus. 

As most companies have directed their employees to return to work, they took to the roads in cabs or in their private vehicles as public transportation hasn't resumed in the city.  As people swarmed on the road, some of the important roads filled with vehicles. They have been moving their life under risk and sticking to the new normal. 

As the lockdown kept the transmission rate low, the relaxations had kept the pressure on tackling the spread and while the virus has got grounds of spread at the highly secured Chief Secretariat as two senior ministers and eight legislators had tested positive for the virus so far, the government is at the current stage to ensure that it won't loosen the grip on its fight against the pandemic amid the relaxations.