CHENNAI: For the fifth consecutive day, fresh Covid-19 infections remained above the 1,600-mark in Tamil Nadu. And, Chennai for the second day in a row topped the state's fresh cases chart with 232 cases, a 40-day high.
While fresh cases were just three short of 1,700 on Sunday, the death toll was 27. A total of 1,594 people were discharged from the Covid registry on Sunday, leaving the state with 16,969 patients undergoing treatment. This number was above 19,800 the same day last month.
So far, 35,337 people have died in TN, the third highest in the country next to Maharashtra (1,38,518) and Karnataka (37,603). TN's case fatality ratio has hovered around 1.3% for the past six weeks. It was close to 2% during the peak of the second wave.
The test positivity rate (TPR) in Chennai is below one percent and the labs continue to test 22,000 or more samples from the city. The neighbouring district of Chengalpet, where new cases were on the decline for the past three days, once again witnessed an increase (114 new cases).
In Coimbatore, as many as 215 new cases were recorded but the discharge count and the district's TPR remained constant above 210 and 1.7% respectively for the past three days. Salem (71 new cases) is another western district where new cases are on the rise. Speaking to reporters from Salem, Tamil Nadu health minister Ma Subramanian said that his department is ready to face the covid-19 third wave, if it comes.
