TN reports over 4000 cases after few days of declining numbers; testing at an all-time high

CHENNAI: After three days of reporting less than 4,000 cases, Tamil Nadu's Covid-19 positive cases surged again on Thursday with 4231 people testing positive for the infection in the State. The number of people who succumbed to the virus too continued to hover over 60 taking the death toll to 1,765, the state media bulletin confirmed.
However, testing was at an all-time high. The State bulletin said 41,038 persons were tested on Thursday, which has been the highest number of tests conducted in a single day.

Testing has been a major focus of the state government and the bulletin confirmed that the number of testing facilities have gone up to 100 with 53 being government-run.

The numbers had dropped marginally to 3,827 on Monday, 3,616 on Tuesday and 3756 on Wednesday. According to the bulletin, the total number of cases in the state now stands at 1,26,581.

Chennai has 73,728 cases in all, of which 1,216 were reported on Thursday. The state capital was under an intense lockdown from June 19 till July 5 along with neighbouring Chengalpattu, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram.

The Commissioner of the Greater Chennai Corporation had earlier said that the lockdown was a success and had successfully curbed the rapid rise that the city was witnessing.

Madurai, which is the only district in the state that is continuing with a complete lockdown, recorded 262 cases on Thursday.

The bulletin said 3,994 people were discharged on Thursday and that total recoveries in the state stood at 78,161.

Since Monday, the state administration had lifted the complete lockdown it had imposed in Chennai and its neighbouring districts and eased restrictions across the state. However, a general statewide lockdown is in place till July 31.