NEW CORONA HOTSPOT EMERGES IN CHENNAI, AREA ON HIGH ALERT; REASONS FOR RAPID SPREAD DETAILED! 

As Tamil Nadu crosses 8,000-mark with COVID-19 cases, Chennai reported 538 more confirmed reports out of Monday's 798 record. Among the rise in cases, the city contributes to 55 percent of cases in the state.

Surprisingly, the deadly coronavirus has spread into one of the most congested areas in the city- Sowcarpet, where mostly the north Indian communities live. This area comes under the Royapuram zone.

When media contacted corporation officials regarding this issue, an official said "Elakandappan Street at Sowcarpet has been barricaded. We suspect a spread from the Pulianthope area which is just close by."

Pulianthope area has been in the news for quite sometime after a massive spike which was reported due to a prayer meeting.

"18 people in the Periamet slum area are contacts of a person from Aaduthotti street in Pulianthope which is a hotspot. Eight people from the street already had the virus. Stringer Street in George town in another hotspot where the spread is becoming uncontrollable and tracing back contacts lead to Thideer Nagar," the corporation official added.  

Looking at other areas in the city, officials with Kodambakkam zone claimed that the rise in cases belonged to the Koyambedu market. "Most of them are contacts of people in the market. Some had visited the market too," an official stated.

Looking at the updated stats, the Chennai corporation has reported 3050 active cases with the 531 cases in Kodambakkam, then 519 in Royapuram, 405 in Tiruvika Nagar and 326 in Teynampet.

Yesterday, Special Officer Dr J Radhakrishnan, who held a meeting to discuss the measures taken in the city said that a total of 1054 people are in the 39 COVID care centres of the city corporation.

"239 people are in Velammal Engineering College, 170 in DG Vaishnav, 112 in Loyola, and 444 in the Trade Center," Radhakrishnan said.