Tamil Nadu recorded a high number of deaths due to COVID-19 on Friday with 467 more persons succumbing to the infection, taking the toll to 19,598. The State added 36,184 fresh cases to its tally.
Though the daily cases dropped below 6,000 in Chennai, the number of fatalities hit 100. A total of 5,913 people tested positive and 109 persons died. The city had reported 6,000-plus cases for eight consecutive days.
Fatalities were reported in 36 districts, except in Ariyalur. After Chennai, Chengalpattu reported 40 deaths, followed by Tiruvallur with 32. A total of 27 persons died in Madurai, while 25 died in Coimbatore. There were 16 deaths each in Kanniyakumari and Nagapattinam, 15 each in Dindigul and Tiruchi and 13 each in Salem, Vellore and Virudhunagar.
Of the 467 persons who died (168 at private and 299 at government hospitals), eight were in their 20s, and 30 were in their 30s. A total of 128 persons did not have co-morbidities.
Among them was a 22-year-old woman from Madurai, who was admitted to the Government Rajaji Hospital on May 15. She died of COVID-19 pneumonia on May 17.
Coimbatore reported 3,243 fresh cases, followed by Chengalpattu with 2,226 cases.
There were 1,656 cases in Erode, 1,145 in Kancheepuram, 1,251 in Kanniyakumari, 1,355 in Madurai, 1,667 in Tiruvallur, 1,796 in Tiruppur and 1,331 in Tiruchi.
The fresh cases took the State’s overall tally to 17,70,988.
The State had 2,74,629 active cases. These included 48,782 people in Chennai, 29,345 in Coimbatore, 15,330 in Chengalpattu, 12,306 in Madurai, 12,046 in Tiruvallur and 10,861 in Tiruchi.
The active case-load went past 10,000 in two more districts — Kanniyakumari with 10,048 and Tiruppur with 10,132.
A total of 24,478 people, including 4,590 in Chennai, were discharged after treatment. In the last 24 hours, 1,74,112 samples were tested. This took the total sample count to 2,59,49,517.
Another 46,744 people were vaccinated. They included 24,605 people aged 45-59 and 10,085 senior citizens. The overall coverage has gone up to 71,52,535.
U.T. reports 26 deaths
The Union Territory of Puducherry on Friday recorded 26 COVID-19 deaths and 1,702 new cases.
Of the total deaths reported in the 24 hours ending at 10 a.m. on Friday, 22 were reported in Puducherry and four in Karaikal.
The toll rose to 1,295 in the Union Territory.
As many as 2,017 people recovered from the infection.
The number of active cases stood at 17,936.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, 9,62,501 people have been tested for the infection. So far, 93,167 people have tested positive.
As many as 2,36,975 people have got vaccinated.
