Tamil Nadu registered a rise in fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday as 671 persons tested positive for the infection. This was the highest single-day increase in new cases since March 5, when the daily count exceeded 500.
The cases have been slowly increasing in a number of districts — Chennai, Coimbatore, Chengalpattu, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram — in the last few days.
Chennai’s daily count rose to 275 cases from 236 cases on Tuesday, while Coimbatore and Chengalpattu recorded 63 and 53 cases respectively. While 39 persons tested positive for the infection in Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram recorded 34 cases and Tiruppur 28 cases.
There were no new cases in Dharmapuri, while 23 districts clocked in fewer than 10 cases each. The fresh cases included five returnees from Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha and West Bengal. With this, the State’s overall tally stood at 8,56,917.
The number of samples tested in the last 24 hours crossed 60,000. A total of 65,082 samples were tested. Till date, 1,80,20,932 samples have been tested. A total of 64,905 persons were tested on Wednesday.
5 succumb to infection
The State recorded five deaths — two persons in Chennai, and one each in Nagapattinam, Tenkasi and Tirupattur. This included a 55-year-old woman from Tirupattur who was admitted to a private hospital on February 27 with complaints of fever, cough and difficulty in breathing for two days. She died on March 9 due to acute respiratory distress syndrome and COVID-19 pneumonia. Three persons aged in their 60s also succumbed to the infection. Till date, 12,530 persons have died due to COVID-19 in the State.
Another 532 persons — including 231 in Chennai — were discharged after treatment. Till date, 8,40,180 persons were discharged in the State. The active cases increased to 4,207 of which Chennai accounted for 1,915.
With another 86,900 persons being administered the vaccine on Wednesday, the State’s total vaccination coverage till date crossed 11 lakh.
As many as 34,485 senior citizens, 21,950 persons aged 45 to 59 with co-morbidities, 20,439 frontline workers and 10,026 healthcare workers were inoculated. Till date, a total of 11,25,703 persons have been vaccinated in the State.
More Covishield shots
The majority of them received the Covishield shot. This includes 33,515 senior citizens, 21,482 persons with co-morbidities, 19,959 frontline workers and 9,516 healthcare workers. Meanwhile, 510 healthcare workers, 480 frontline workers, 468 persons aged 45 to 59 years with co-morbidities and 970 persons aged above 60 years received Covaxin.
So far, 4,43,369 healthcare workers, 2,83,435 frontline workers, 1,48,213 persons with co-morbidities, 2,50,686 senior citizens were vaccinated against COVID-19 in T.N., according to the daily report issued by the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
