After eight months, Tamil Nadu’s daily count of COVID-19 cases dropped below 500 on Thursday. A total of 494 persons tested positive for the virus, taking the case tally to 8,40,360.
The State had first recorded over 500 daily cases in the first week of May. However, the daily count dropped below 500 for a few days during mid-May before climbing again.
According to Health Department officials, the daily positivity rate had dropped below 1%, though the State was conducting 50,000-55,000 RT-PCR tests a day.
Chennai reported no death due to COVID-19 for the second time in nearly a week.
The State recorded four deaths — one each in Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Kancheepuram and Kanniyakumari — taking the toll to 12,375. The four deaths included that of a 54-year-old man from Cuddalore, who had no co-morbidities. He was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Chennai, on February 2, but died within four hours of admission due to COVID-19 pneumonia and respiratory failure. He had tested positive on January 18.
Perambalur, Villupuram and Virudhunagar districts reported no fresh case. As many as 20 districts clocked fresh cases in single digits. Among them, Kallakurichi, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli recorded only one case each.
A total of 149 persons tested positive in Chennai, while Coimbatore had 58 fresh cases.
There were 29 cases in Tiruvallur, 28 in Chengalpattu, 25 in Cuddalore and 22 in Erode. The fresh cases included four returnees — one from the UAE, two from West Bengal and one from Karnataka.
According to the Health Department, only eight districts have been reporting more than 15 cases per day in the last 10 days. A total of 20 districts have not reported a single death in the last 10 days.
As many as 4,467 persons are undergoing treatment, including 1,572 in Chennai and 446 in Coimbatore. In the last 24 hours, 51,882 samples were tested.
