COIMBATORE: The district recorded a 4.8% drop in the Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, when 2,439 people were tested positive for the virus, compared to 2,564 cases on Monday.
The number of active cases also fell by 8.5% to 26,751 on the day from 29,268 on Monday, with 4,917 patients getting discharged from various treatment centres.
This had an impact on the recovery rate, which has improved to 85.3%.
As per the available data, 1,64,710 of the 1.93 lakh positive cases have recovered in the district so far.
The Covid-19 toll swelled to 1,576, with the state including 44 more fatalities that occurred in the district in the bulletin.
Among the deceased were a 39-year-old man who died 18 days after hospitalization and a 29-year-old woman who died four days after admission to a private hospital.
The remaining victims were aged between 40 and 90 years.
Now that the lockdown has been relaxed, allowing wholesalers, meat, grocery and standalone shops to function till 5pm, people were seen crowding RG Street and Town Hall.
“We have warned to close the shops down, if they don’t ensure social distancing among the customers and people are found milling around unnecessarily without following Covid-19 norms,” a health department official said.
Officials have also begun cordoning off entire lanes in residential areas with more than three positive cases.
A small lane at Nambialaganpalayam was cordoned off on Sunday after more than 20 people tested positive for the virus in the area.
M A Siddiq, district monitoring officer, said, “We have decided to be more stringent with the containment measures in rural areas, which now account for 44% of the cases.
The test positivity rate is also high in rural areas.
So, we have decided to conduct more fever camps and door-to-door surveys there.” At 51, Karamadai has the most number of containment zones in rural areas, followed by Thudiyalur (43).