There was a marginal dip in fresh cases of COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu as 5,063 persons tested positive for the infection on Tuesday. However, for the second consecutive day, more than 100 deaths were recorded. As many as 6,501 persons were discharged from hospitals.
The fresh cases took the State’s overall tally to 2,68,285, of which 55,152 persons are undergoing treatment and 2,08,784 have been discharged so far. With 108 more fatalities recorded on Tuesday, a total of 4,349 persons have died of the disease in the State so far.
Chennai accounted for 1,023 of the fresh cases, taking its tally to 1,04,027. Currently, 11,856 persons are undergoing treatment in the city. Twenty-three of the 108 deaths were recorded in the city.
Cases dipped in Madurai as only 40 persons tested positive, weeks after they started soaring. However, in Virudhunagar, 424 persons tested positive, followed by Theni with 292 cases. The other southern districts that had 100-plus cases were Kanniyakumari-122, Sivaganga-141, Thoothukudi-189 and Tirunelveli-155.
However, the number of cases stayed high in many of the northern districts, with 358 persons testing positive in Tiruvallur, 261 in Cuddalore, 245 in Chengalpattu and 220 in Kancheepuram. Tiruvannamalai and Vellore had 132 and 159 cases respectively. Kallakurichi reported 149 cases. Coimbatore recorded 228 cases. A total of 28 returnees tested positive in the State.
Among the districts, Kanniyakumari accounted for nine deaths, while eight persons died in Chengalpattu, seven in Coimbatore and six each in Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Tirunelveli.
Among the deceased was a 32-year-old man from Tiruvallur who was admitted to a private hospital with complaints of difficulty in breathing for six days on July 30. He had diabetes, and died on August 3 owing to multiple organ dysfunction and COVID-19. A 38-year-old man with no co-morbidities died at the Government Omandurar Medical College Hospital on August 2 owing to acute respiratory distress, acute respiratory failure and COVID-19 pneumonia.
Of the 6,501 persons discharged, 1,143 were from hospitals in Chennai, followed by 559 in Kancheepuram.
Samples tested
The number of samples tested in the last 24 hours dipped further. A total of 55,122 samples were tested, taking the total number to 28,92,395. Three more testing facilities were added — a government lab at the Government Hospital at Aranthangi in Pudukottai, and two private facilities at Assured Best Care Hospital (P) Ltd, Tiruchi, and Microbe World, Newfairlands, Salem. With these, the State has 125 testing facilities.
