T.N. records 4,666 new cases, 57 deaths

State reports less than 5,000 cases for second consecutive day; Chennai accounts for 1,164 infections

October 14, 2020 02:54 am | Updated 02:54 am IST - CHENNAI

Tamil Nadu reported 4,666 fresh cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. Chennai accounted for 1,164 cases and Coimbatore 398. The State also recorded 57 deaths, taking the toll to 10,371.

For the second consecutive day, the State reported less than 5,000 cases. A total of 6,65,930 persons have so far tested positive in the State. Of them, 43,239 were active cases. With the discharge of 5,117 more persons after treatment, the number of persons discharged rose to 6,12,320.

In Chennai, 1,217 persons were discharged and 13 persons died. The city has so far accounted for 1,84,429 cases: 1,67,284 discharged, 13,704 active cases and 3,441 deaths. Salem recorded 277 cases, Chengalpattu 252 and Tiruvallur 236. Ten other districts had 100-plus cases. Among them were Tiruppur 166, Cuddalore 138, Namakkal 129 and The Nilgiris 123.

Of the 57 fatalities, 38 persons died at government hospitals. Among the deceased was a 35-year-old woman from Coimbatore. A diabetic, she was admitted to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital on October 9, and her swab returned positive the next day. She died on October 12 owing to bilateral bronchopneumonia and uncontrolled diabetes, according to a bulletin issued by the Health Department.

Six persons in their 40s succumbed to the infection. One of them was a 48-year-old man from Chennai, who had no co-morbidities. He died at ESIC Medical College and PGIMSR, K.K. Nagar, owing to acute respiratory distress syndrome and COVID-19 pneumonia on October 12. He had tested positive on September 22, and was admitted to the hospital on October 11 with complaints of fever and difficulty in breathing.

In the last 24 hours, 85,509 samples were tested in the State. So far, 84,88,503 samples have been tested.

Situation in U.T.

The test positivity rate in Puducherry declined further with 268 new cases reported from over 4,200 tests on Tuesday, even as the overall COVID-19 tally crossed 32,000 cases.

The test positivity rate touched a new low of 6.30% in over three months, while case fatality rate declined to 1.77%. The recovery rate was 83.94%.

Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi said there should be no let-up in the enforcement of safety norms in spite of the fall in the test positivity rate. The system of random sampling could be taken as part of survey of state of health and as a form of feedback on the ground situation, she said.

Ms. Bedi, who reviewed the situation with officials, had given instructions to get the LED screen of the Tourism Department at the beach repaired and use it for running awareness messages.

Meanwhile, two more persons, including a 60-year-old woman, died of COVID-19, taking the toll to 567. Both fatalities were recorded in Karaikal where the toll stands at 51. For the first time in nearly three months, no COVID-19 casualty was reported in the capital. The deaths in Puducherry is 470, Yanam 42 and Mahe four.

Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao told a press meet that 268 new cases were registered at the end of testing of 4,249 samples on Tuesday, raising the overall tally to 32,004 cases.

With 310 patients discharged on Tuesday, 26,865 patients had recovered so far in the U.T.

Of the 4,572 active patients, 2,944 patients were in home isolation. Puducherry accounted for 202 new cases out of 268 fresh infections, followed by 36 in Karaikal, 8 in Yanam and 22 in Mahe region.

Mr. Rao said retired health officials were willing to volunteer their services to help contain the pandemic. The health department is looking at forming teams to carry out post-COVID health check-up on recovered patients.

Of the 2.41 lakh samples tested by the health department, 2.06 lakh samples were negative.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.