After over four months, fresh COVID-19 cases exceeded 2,000 in Tamil Nadu on Saturday. A total of 2,089 persons tested positive for the infection, taking the overall tally of cases to 8,77,279.
The last time the State recorded over 2,000 cases (2,112) was back in November 12, 2020. Saturday’s cases pushed the active cases in the State to 12,157.
Chennai accounted for a major chunk of active cases as 4,785 people were under treatment, followed by Chengalpattu (1,254) and Coimbatore (1,092).
Chennai reported 775 new cases, while Chengalpattu and Coimbatore had 186 and 185 cases respectively. There were 110 cases in Tiruvallur, 82 in Kancheepuram and 66 in Thanjavur. There was an overall rise in infections in a number of districts across the State — 59 in Tiruppur, 55 in Salem, 51 in Nagapattinam, 45 in Tiruchi, 43 in Cuddalore, and 38 each in Madurai and Tiruvarur.
Five returnees
Among those who tested positive for the infection were five returnees from the UAE, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka and West Bengal.
Nine more persons died in the State, taking the toll to 12,659.
There were four deaths in Chennai, two in Pudukottai, and one each in Chengalpattu, Madurai and Tiruvallur.
All nine of them were aged above 50 years and had co-morbidities. This included a 65-year-old man from Tiruvallur, who had diabetes and systemic hypertension. He was admitted to the Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital on March 24 and died the next day due to COVID-19 pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
In the last 24 hours, a total of 84,759 people were tested. This took the total number of people tested till date to 1,89,40,627. Samples-wise, 85,173 samples were tested.
Over one lakh vaccinated
Another 1,05,814 people — 35,233 senior citizens, 41,374 persons aged 45 to 59 years with co-morbidities, 19,077 frontline workers and 10,130 healthcare workers — were vaccinated on Saturday.
The overall coverage stood at 27,53,823.
While 28,090 senior citizens, 33,471 people with co-morbidities, 14,553 frontline workers and 7,994 healthcare workers received Covishield, 7,143 senior citizens, 7,903 people aged 45 to 59 years with co-morbidities, 4,524 frontline workers and 2,136 healthcare workers received Covaxin, according to the daily report issued by the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
