As 1,134 more persons tested positive for COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu on Friday, Health Department officials said the State’s overall positivity rate had dropped below 2%.
The fresh cases took the overall tally to 8,04,650. Another 1,170 persons were discharged and 12 persons succumbed to the infection. So far, 7,82,915 persons have been discharged, while the toll has reached 11,954. A total of 9,781 persons remain under treatment.
Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said Chennai was registering a positivity rate below 3.5% continuously. “This may be good news but it was during such times that places like Delhi and countries such as the U.S. and those in Europe were casual owing to fewer infections, resulting in a faster spread of the disease,” he said.
Of the fresh cases, Chennai reported 341, followed by Coimbatore with 115 cases. While Chengalpattu had 69 cases, Tiruvallur had 51 and Tiruppur 43 cases. There were 41 cases in Salem. While Perambalur had no fresh cases, the remaining districts reported less than 40 cases each.
In whichever district that had less than 10 cases, the aim was “virus suppression”. No district should become complacent owing to the decline in cases, Mr. Radhakrishnan said.
The State government was keen on reducing the case fatality. The weekly case fatality was 0.86% two weeks ago, and 1.1% now, he added.
A total of 75,347 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. So far, 1,33,10,701 samples were tested in the State. One more private laboratory — Arthi CT and MRI Scans, R.S. Puram, Coimbatore — was approved for testing.
Following the COVID-19 cluster at IIT-Madras, the Health Department has arranged for walk-in test facilities for educational institutions, working women’s hostels and mansions where group dining happens, Mr. Radhakrishnan said. “We are intensifying testing. The Greater Chennai Corporation carries out 11,000 tests a day, of which 7,000 are their direct samples. We are carrying out intensive testing in markets too,” he said.
Urging the public to continue wearing masks, he said vaccination, when ready, would be rolled out in phases. “The Centre would first supply the vaccines for doctors, nurses and healthcare workers. They would be followed by frontline workers, and subsequently, persons aged above 50.”
He said the government had identified 46,000 places for vaccination.
