4,329 new coronavirus cases, Tamil Nadu crosses 1 lakh-mark

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s Covid-19 count crossed the one lakh mark on Friday, 118 days after the first case was reported in the state. With 4,329 fresh cases, the TN tally rose to 1,02,721 though the number of active cases was much lower at 42,955, a recovery rate of 57%.
Death toll rose to 1,385 with 64 more fatalities reported. The case fatality rate in TN is among the lowest at 1.3%.These deaths don’t include more than 200 Covid deaths registered by the Chennai Corporation, which may push up mortality to 1.6%.
Tamil Nadu is the second state to cross the grim milestone after Maharashtra (1.9 lakh cases now), which recorded one lakh cases 96 days after its first Covid-19 case. TN reported its first case on March 7, when a 45-year-old passenger from Muscat tested positive. It took 88 days since then for the state to record nearly 25,000 cases on June 3. In the next two weeks, cases doubled to touch 50,000 on June 17 and nine days later it nudged 75,000. On Friday, in just a week, the tally breached one lakh.
Chennai, the worst-hit city in TN, recorded 2,082 new cases, taking its tally to 64,689, though active cases were 23,581. Meanwhile, the doubling period the time it takes for the total cases to double – went up to 19 days in Chennai compared to TN’s average of 15 days, say epidemiologists from the National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai. Although the city has 64% of the total cases, its share of the state’s daily fresh cases has dropped below 50%. While culture minister K Pandiarajan said the curve is flattening in the city with almost the same number of cases every day, epidemiologists and public health experts said it would take at least a week to see the effects of the lockdown.
Health minister C Vijayabaskar said the state was doubling beds in Stanley Medical College Hospital from 750 to 1,500 and adding another 750 beds at the new hospital at King Institute of Preventive Medicine. “These hospitals will have beds with oxygen. We are increasing the oxygen capacity at all hospitals from 6 kilolitre tanks to 40 kilolitre tanks. Similar efforts are being taken in other districts as well,” he said.
Chennai’s adjoining districts Chengalpet (330) cases, Kancheepuram (121), Tiruvallur (172) together added 623 fresh cases and logged 13 deaths. “Most of these patients live closer to Chennai and seek treatment from hospitals here,” said former city health officer Dr P Kuganandam. “But the situation in the south could be far worse,” he said, pointing to Madurai.
Madurai, which reported 287 fresh cases, had a doubling time of six days and Ramanathapuram, which had 73 cases, of seven days. Among other southern districts, Theni recorded 126 cases, Sivaganga had 53 and Tirunelveli reported 41 cases. The deaths in these districts were also increasing. On Friday, Madurai reported eight deaths and Ramanathapuram reported three. “Madurai, may not be able to take the load of cases from the region like Chennai because the human resources and infrastructure in the region are limited. The deaths in these regions may also increase rapidly due to delay in testing,” Dr Kuganandam said.
In the central region, Trichy reported 47 cases, Thanjavur had 13 cases. In the West, Salem had 99 cases, Coimbatore had 37, while the numbers in Karur and Tiruppur was five or less. Vellore, which reported 145 cases is also causing worry. The northern district has seen a more than twenty-fold increase in the number of cases over the last one month. In the last 24 hours, Ranipet had 90 cases and Tiruvannamalai recorded 172 cases.
Among the 64 deaths, six people had no comorbidities and 38 of them were above the age of 60. There were two people in their 20s, three in 30s and 21 of them between 40 and 59 years. The report said 16 of them died within a day of admission; a 84-year-old man was declared brought dead by doctors at the Government Royapettah Hospital.