While Tamil Nadu and the rest of the country have been witnessing the coronavirus outbreak for nearly two months now, Chennai has been recording the highest number of Covid-19 positive cases the city has ever witnessed in the last four days, despite the nationwide lockdown situation.

In the recent past, a significant number of the cases have been registered in the Koyambedu wholesale market complex, with the number of positive cases in the area currently standing at 88. It has also been reported that six flower vendors who had purchased flowers from the Koyambedu market and sold them outside the Vadapalani temple have contracted the virus. All of them have been quarantined and are currently under observation. Chennai saw its highest spike in cases yesterday as the city accounted for 176 of the fresh 203 cases reported on Friday. Regarding the sudden rise in the number of cases, health minister C Vijaya Baskar reportedly said, "But that is not a cause for concern. We are screening a lot of people, which is why we are able to pick up a lot of positive cases. We isolate them and ensure infection doesn't spread." He further added, "At least 14% of samples tested in India are from TN. We have 46 testing labs across the state. So far, we have tested 1.29 lakh samples for 1.20 lakh people. We are slightly behind a more densely populated Maharashtra, which has screened 1.39 lakh samples."

As on May 2, a total of 37345 cases have been registered across India and 1229 people have died. Tamil Nadu has reported 2526 cases and 28 deaths.