A total of 6,972 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday. The State recorded 88 deaths, including that of a five-year-old.
Chennai accounted for 1,107 fresh infections, while Virudhunagar witnessed a surge in cases, adding 577 infections to its tally.
The State’s overall case count rose to 2,27,688, of which 57,073 were active cases. As many as 4,707 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the total figure to 1,66,956.
The State’s toll increased to 3,659.
Among the deceased was a five-year-old girl from Tiruchi, who was admitted to the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, Chennai, with acute lymphocytic leukaemia and febrile neutropenia on July 8. She subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 and died on July 27 due to factors including pneumonia, COVID-19 infection, sepsis and shock.
Some northern and southern districts continued to account for a majority of the fresh infections.
At 486, Tiruvallur district continued to report a high number of cases, followed by Chengalpattu (365), Tiruvannamalai (266) and Kancheepuram (223) in the northern part of the State.
In southern Tamil Nadu, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli recorded 380 and 385 cases, respectively. In Madurai, 345 persons tested positive for the infection. Theni saw 282 cases while Kanniyakumari saw 223.
In the western region, Coimbatore reported 273 fresh infections, while Thanjavur in the delta region had 209 cases.
Nine districts, including Ranipet, Kallakurichi, Tiruchi and Tiruvarur, recorded over 100 cases each. Sixty-four returnees tested positive across the State.
Chennai accounted for 24 of the 88 deaths, taking its toll to 2,056.
Eight persons died in Tiruvallur and seven in Thoothukudi. There were six deaths each in Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Madurai and Virudhunagar.
Among the youngest adults to have died was a 29-year-old man from Tiruvannamalai, who was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai on July 22. The man tested positive for COVID-19 infection on July 25 and died on Monday due to factors including gluteal abscess, renal failure, multi-organ dysfunction syndrome and septic shock.
A total of 61,153 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. With this, a total of 24,75,866 samples have been tested so far.
Two more laboratories
Two private laboratories — Agam Diagnostics, Madurai, and Department of Microbiology, SRM Medical College Hospital, Tiruchi — have been approved for COVID-19 testing.
With this, the number of approved private laboratories has exceeded the number of government testing facilities in the State. There are 58 government testing facilities and 61 private facilities in Tamil Nadu.
