Covid tally in TN breaches 30-lakh mark
After hovering over 23,000 daily new Covid-19 cases over the last few days, Tamil Nadu on Wednesday re-recorded a sharp increase as the number of new infections was 26,981. This pushed the caseload to 30,14,235, said the Health Department said.
As many as 35 people died of the virus, which took the toll of 37,073, a bulletin said here.
The recoveries were 17,456 in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 28,06,501, leaving 1,70,661 active infections.
The State reported 23,888 new cases on Tuesday (January 18), while on Monday (January 17), it was 23,443. It said 23,975 on Sunday (January 16) 23,989 on Saturday (January 15), 23,459 on January 14 (Friday).
Chennai accounted for most of the new infections with 8,007, followed by Coimbatore 3,082, Chengalpet 2,194, Kanyakumari 1,008, while the remaining was spread across other districts.
The State capital, Chennai, has witnessed a decline in new cases compared to other districts after reporting 8,305 new infections on Tuesday (January 18).
Those who tested positive today included 32 returnees from domestic and overseas locations.
A total of 1,50,635 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, and they took the cumulative number of specimens examined to 5,99,80,920.
Meanwhile, Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian appealed to the people not to panic over the increase in new cases. The surge may be due to people visiting their hometowns to celebrate the Pongal festival last week.
“Of the 1.21 lakh villages in Tamil Nadu, the virus was prevalent in more than 28,000 villages. In urban areas, of the total 1.27 lakh streets, contagion is spread to 28,000 streets,” he told reporters.
To a query, he said of the total 1.92 lakh beds available to treat Covid-19 patients, patients occupied over 9,000 beds. “Nearly 94 per cent of the Covid-19 affected patients are under home isolation,” he said.
Article Proofread & Published by Gauri Malhotra.
