Chennai recoveries cross 2 lakh mark, but positivity rate increases to 6.6 per cent

Chennai

As on Tuesday, Chennai has recorded 2,09,646 positive cases with 492 new cases. Of this, 2,01,041 patients have recovered at a recovery rate of 96 per cent. The active cases have come down to two per cent with only 4,882 people undergoing treatment. So far, 3,783 people have succumbed to the infection. Even as the daily active cases are falling steadily, the city has been witnessing an increase in the test positivity rate in the last few days, coinciding with fewer tests. In the last few days, the city test positivity rate increased by 1.6 per cent to 6.6 per cent with the daily number of tests touching a new low of 7,545 on Monday. When over 10,000 people were tested a day, the positivity rate touched five per cent last week.

On Tuesday morning, among the 15 Corporation zones, Anna Nagar and Kodambakkam have reported the most number of cases with 23,097 and 22,565 respectively. Manali zone has the lowest number of 

cases with 3,306. Royapuram, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar and Tondiarpet zones which witnessed a spike in the initial phase of the pandemic have contained the spread comparatively. Five zones – Manali, Sholinganallur, Tondiarpet, Teynampet and Adyar have active cases less than 100 with Manali having the lowest of 39 cases. Anna Nagar zone has the maximum number of active cases of 344. Alandur zone has been witnessing an increase and the numbers stand at 380.

ONE YEAR OF COVID-19:

WORLD’S 1ST CORONA CASE REPORTED ON NOVEMBER 17, 2019, IN WUHAN

• A 55-year-old individual from the Hubei province in China had first tested positive for the coronavirus last year and in a few months the pandemic spread worldwide
• Initially Chinese authorities said they had identified 266 cases. However, doctors only realised that they were dealing with a new disease in late December 
• At that time, the authorities said the virus stemmed from a wet market in Wuhan. It was later clear that some of those infected had no connection with the market

EXPERTS HAIL mRNA VACCINE FOR COVID TREATMENT

• With the two mRNA vaccine candidates from pharma giants Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna showing effectiveness in preventing COVID in an interim analysis, experts in India said it can be very promising in this fight
• To date, no mRNA vaccine has been licenced for infectious diseases and if an mRNA vaccine is approved for coronavirus, it would be the first of its type
• The hunt for a vaccine too has been a long one
• mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccines trick the body into producing some of the viral proteins itself. They work by using mRNA, which is the molecule that essentially puts DNA instructions into action
• This vaccine works by introducing an mRNA sequence which is coded for a disease-specific antigen (like SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus), once produced within the body, the antigen is recognised by the immune system, preparing it to fight 

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