Chennai has become one of the active and biggest hotspots in Tamil Nadu after reporting the grounds of the rampant spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) and despite the efforts and mechanisms taken by the corporation, the city has been adding more cases to its account that has been contributing the state's graph to have a sharp rise in the number of total affected cases.

The numbers reported by Chennai for the past few days were unprecedented since the outbreak and it has swirled questions among the public on whether the lockdown is paying off the expected output of containing the spread. The city has been under lockdown for more than a month and it has reported more cases during the tenure of the restrictions. Chennai district currently has the most number of cases in the state making it imperative to delve into the question of why the city has more cases.

According to Dr. Radhakrishnan IAS, who is the special nodal officer for the Greater Chennai Corporation towards combating the virus, the aggressive testing has led to witness soaring high cases in Chennai. He stated that the numbers could spike up further in the upcoming weeks. He has put forth the reasons while addressing the reporters and he appealed to the people not to worry about the numbers and expected their cooperation in government's fight against COVID-19.

Radhakrishnan asserted that the high numbers were a sign that the government's testing strategy is going in the right direction and the containment efforts were on the right track. He further stated that the corporation has been disinfecting the containment zones every day and taking people for testing after they become probable contacts towards containing the spread. 

He revealed that five zones in the city pose a real challenge for the corporation. These five zones are Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Teyampet, and Kodambakkam and these zones account for about 80% of the total cases reported by the city. He pressed the people to stay co-operative for the government and stay vigil and added that the people should wear masks despite having no symptoms and they should adhere to the guidelines and protocols issued by the government. 

On Monday, Radhakrishan visited the Koyambedu market, which has emerged as the new epicenter for the virus. He took stock of the situation in one of the country's busiest markets following which he addressed the reporters. He said that the officials have been testing the traders and laborers attached to the Koyambedu market complex. Most of the positive cases in the market were asymptomatic and they were known to have contracted to the virus only after testing them.

By calling the people not to get panic, he reiterated them to stay vigilant to contain the spread of the virus. On Monday, Chennai has reported 266 positive cases -which is the highest single-day rise in the city taking the total number of cases to 1,724 so far. According to the state health department, Tamil Nadu has reported 527 fresh cases on Monday of which most of the cases were directly linked to the Koyambedu cluster. 

By this time on April 23, the state had 908 active cases and in the span of ten days, the numbers were doubled as the state currently has 2,107 active cases. As of Monday evening, Tamil Nadu has reported 3,550 cases so far of which 2,107 are active, 1,409 have been recovered and 31 have succumbed to the virus.

Also read: How did Chennai's Koyambedu market emerge as the new COVID-19 epicenter?