As many as 610 people were found to have been infected with the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu on Sunday, out of 1,00,058 persons tested.
Among them were six passengers from the United Arab Emirates and one traveller each from Kenya and Ghana.
So far, 27,44,037 people have been infected in the State, and 6,629 patients are under treatment.
Chennai led the table with 171 fresh cases. The district also accounted for 24 cases of the Omicron variant; 12 of them had been discharged after treatment and 12 others are under treatment.
The other districts where the Omicron variant was identified are Madurai (4 cases), Tiruvannamalai and Chengalpattu (2 each), and Salem (1). All of them are under treatment.
While no fresh infection was reported in Theni and Mayiladuthurai, Coimbatore (89), Erode (45), Tiruppur (40), Salem (26) and Chengalpattu (48) continued to report a high number of infections. In 22 districts, the cases were in a single digit.
With the discharge of 679 people, the number of recovered patients went up to 27,00,673.
The State also recorded 10 deaths, pushing the toll to 36,735. Five of them died at government hospitals and the rest at private hospitals. All of them had pre-existing health conditions, according to the daily bulletin issued by the Directorate of Public Health.
Three of the dead were aged over 80. An 88-year-old man from Tiruppur, who tested positive on December 19, was admitted to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital on December 24. He died of COVID-19 pneumonia a few hours later.
