820 new cases take TN’s Covid-19 tally to 8.2 lakh

CHENNAI: The state added 820 cases and 11 deaths to the Covid-19 registry. This took the case tally to 8,22,370 on Tuesday and cumulative death toll to 12177.
All districts reported new cases when 6 of 37 districts reported deaths. Active cases dropped to 7,808 on Tuesday. The seven-day average in cases fell from 1,030 during the last week of December to 911, while the average deaths have remained stable at 12.
On Monday, Chennai topped the new cases table with 235 new cases, followed by 81 cases in Coimbatore and 55 cases in Chengalpet.The three districts have topped the average number of cases table in the last one week. While there was a cluster of cases reported from luxury hotels in Chennai, there were sporadic cases and minor clusters in Coimbatore and Chengalpet, officials said. All other districts in the state reported cases below 50 on Tuesday. Chennai reported five deaths, followed by Madurai, which recorded two deaths. Four other districts, Chengalpet, Coimbatore, Namakkal and Salem reported one death each.
Health secretary J Radhakrishnan said four people who returned from the UK were tested positive for the UK strain. “Their health condition is stable. Of the 44 samples sent from the state, NIV has returned results of 12 people. Of this, four people have tested positive for the novel strain. The results of the remaining 32 samples are still awaited,” he said.
While the overall positivity rate – number of people tested positive over the total number of people tested – for the state is coming down steadily, it is below 3 in all districts. Chennai, the worst affected district has the highest positivity rate at 2.5. Other districts with a positivity rate higher than two points are Nagapattinam (2.5), Erode (2.4), Coimbatore (2.2), Tiruppur (2.2) and Salem (2.1). The overall positivity rate has dropped from 1.7% in December to 1.4% in the last five days.