Tamil Nadu’s tally of COVID-19 cases surpassed the 24,000-mark with 1,091 new cases recorded on Tuesday. The State has reported 1,000-plus cases for the third day running.
As on date, the State has 24,586* cases. Of the fresh cases, 809 (806 indigenous and three imported cases) are from Chennai. With this, the city’s tally climbs to 16,585.
Another 536 persons were discharged from hospitals on Tuesday, taking the total number of persons discharged so far to 13,706. There are a total of 10,680 active cases in Tamil Nadu. The State’s toll increased to 197 with 13 fatalities. All 13 persons — 10 men and three women — were aged above 50.
Two women — aged 50 and 55 — died at ESI Medical College, K.K. Nagar.
The 50-year-old woman with diabetes and systemic hypertension was admitted on May 22 with complaints of breathing difficulty for a day, fever for four days and nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea for five days. She died on May 28 due to respiratory failure.
A 74-year-old man with diabetes, systemic hypertension, chronic kidney disease and anaemia was admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on May 30. He died within nine hours after admission and his sample returned positive for COVID-19 on Monday.
With Chennai topping the table in terms of COVID-19 cases, Health Department officials said that they were tracing and testing all cases of Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) in the seven affected zones of the Greater Chennai Corporation.
“In these zones, every 100 houses will have one surveyor. They are visiting all houses and looking for persons with symptoms of ILI such as fever and cough, and all persons with symptoms are being tested. In the last three to four days, these surveyors have been able to pick up several such cases. We are strengthening this measure in the city,” an official said. Health inspectors from the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine have been deputed to the Greater Chennai Corporation, and they are supervising the surveys in the zones.
The city’s neighbouring districts of Chengalpattu and Tiruvallur continued to witness a surge in cases. There were 82 new cases in Chengalpattu and 43 in Tiruvallur. With the new cases, Tiruvallur’s tally of cases rose to 1,025.
Thoothukudi had 31 new cases, while Kancheepuram had 15 and Tiruvannamalai had nine cases. Of the 1,091 new cases, 55 persons had returned from other States by air and road. While 40 were from Maharashtra, eight were from Karnataka, three from Andhra Pradesh and two each from Kerala and Delhi.
With a further 11,094 samples tested, the State has so far tested 5,14,433 samples, while the number of persons tested stood at 4,90,804. The Government District Headquarters Hospital in Nagapattinam has been approved for COVID-19 testing. With this, there are a total of 73 testing facilities in the State.
(*This is inclusive of two deaths cross-notified to other States and one patient who died after testing negative for the infection)
