For the second day in a row, Tamil Nadu reported 900-plus cases of COVID-19, pushing the active cases to more than 6,000. A total of 989 persons tested positive for the infection and nine persons succumbed to the infection in the State.
Of the fresh cases, Chennai reported 394, taking the city’s tally to 2,40,245. There was an overall rise in the number of cases in a handful of districts.
While Chengalpattu and Coimbatore recorded 86 and 77 cases respectively, Tiruvallur’s daily count rose to 71, and Thanjavur recorded 47 cases. A total of 40 persons tested positive in Kancheepuram, 35 in Tiruppur and 26 in Salem. Cuddalore, Dindigul, Erode, Kanniyakumari, Madurai, Namakkal, Tiruvarur and Vellore recorded fresh cases in the range of 10 to 20.
Perambalur and Sivaganga recorded no new cases of COVID-19, while 19 districts had fewer than 10 cases each. Four returnees — two from Andhra Pradesh and one each from Jharkhand and Karnataka — were among the fresh cases. The overall tally climbed to 8,63,363 in the State.
The nine fatalities took the State’s toll to 12,573. Chennai and Thanjavur recorded three deaths each, while Chengalpattu, Ranipet and Sivaganga recorded one death each. Of the nine persons who died, five were women. The active cases increased to 6,222. Of this, 2,394 persons were under treatment in Chennai, 545 in Chengalpattu, 541 in Coimbatore and 409 in Tiruvallur. Another 569 persons were discharged, taking the total number of persons discharged till date to 8,44,568.
In the last 24 hours, 72,025 samples were tested, taking the total number of samples tested till date to 1,85,57,485. Meanwhile, Kurinji Super Specialities Hospital, Clinical Laboratory, Salem was approved for COVID-19 testing. With this, there are 190 testing facilities in the private sector and 69 in the government sector.
U.K. variant
Two more persons — one U.K. returnee and a contact — have tested positive for the U.K. variant coronavirus. Till date, out of the 56 RT-PCR positive patients — 36 U.K. returnees and 20 contacts — whose samples were sent for Whole Genome Sequencing, 15 persons — 11 U.K. returnees and four contacts — were positive for the U.K. variant. While 33 were negative, the results of eight persons were awaited, the bulletin issued by the Health Department said.
A total of 1,21,776 persons, including 47,386 senior citizens and 41,737 persons aged 45 to 59 years with co-morbidities, were vaccinated in the State on Thursday. Till date, 18,42,284 persons were covered under the COVID-19 vaccination programme in Tamil Nadu. With this, over five lakh senior citizens were vaccinated in the State. In total, 5,31,089 senior citizens, 5,26,106 healthcare workers, 4,17,160 frontline workers and 3,67,929 persons with co-morbidities were inoculated.
