Covid-19: Tamil Nadu witnesses steep rise in cases

The number of Covid-19 positive cases went up steeply in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, taking the total tally to 234 cases.
All the 110 new active cases were linked to the 3-day Tablighi Jamaat conference at the Markaz Nizamuddin mosque which was attended by around 1,500 people from the state.

Tamil Nadu Health Secretary, Dr Beela Rajesh, while addressing the media on Wednesday said 1103 attendees of the conference had been traced and isolated. A total of 658 samples had been tested of those who attended the religious congregation. Of these, 190 people have tested positive, she said.

This rise comes shortly on the heels of the spike the State witnessed on Tuesday where it reported 50 new cases of the novel Coronavirus.

People who attended the Nizamuddin conference are spread across over 15 districts in the state.

On Tuesday, Dr Beela Rajesh had said that of the attendees 515 people had been identified and that work was underway to track down the rest of the participants.

She had appealed to people who attended the conference to come forward and identify themselves. On Wednesday, Dr Rajesh people proactively identifying themselves and the lockdown helped to quickly trace the participants of the conference.

Tamil Nadu has tested 2,726 samples till date, has 234 active Covid-19 positive cases, has had six people being discharged after testing positive for the disease and has reported one death.

State government data released on Wednesday said there are 3,371 ventilators and 22,049 isolation beds available. Further, there are 17 testing facilities in the State, which comprise of 11 facilities run by the government and 6 run by private organisations.

District-wise distribution of the new cases in TN:
Coimbatore: 28
Tirunelveli: 6
Erode: 2
Theni: 20
Dindigul: 17
Madurai: 9
Tirupathur: 7
Chengalpet: 7
Sivagangai: 5
Thoothukudi: 2
Tiruvarur: 2
Karur: 1
Kanchipuram: 2
Chennai: 1
Tiruvanamalai: 1