T.N.’s positivity rate drops below 1%

1,542 fresh cases detected from 1,62,487 tests; active cases dip to 17,797

Tamil Nadu’s positivity rate dropped below 1% on Friday. Of the 1,62,487 tests done, 1,542 people tested positive for COVID-19, a positivity rate of 0.95%.

However, fresh infections saw a marginal increase for the second day in a row in Coimbatore. The number of cases rose from 216 on Thursday to 231. In Chennai, 162 persons tested positive, compared with 175 the previous day. There was a small rise in Chengalpattu from 113 to 126. Erode recorded 122 cases, while there were 70 cases in Tiruvallur, 67 in Salem and 64 in Tiruppur. Thanjavur reported 58 cases.

The fresh cases took the State’s overall tally to 26,08,748. Another 1,793 people were discharged after treatment, taking the total number of recovered patients to 25,56,116. The number of people under treatment dropped to 17,797. They included 2,107 patients in Coimbatore, 1,922 in Chennai and 1,521 in Erode.

With the State recording 21 deaths, 27 of the 38 districts reported no fatalities. There were five deaths in Coimbatore and three each in Chennai and Tiruppur. These included deferred reconciled death reports from Tiruppur, Erode, Namakkal and Ranipet. According to Thursday’s data, when the State’s overall positivity rate stood at 1%, 21 districts accounted for less than 1%. They included Chennai (0.7), Dindigul (0.3), Madurai (0.2), Ramanathapuram (0.2) and Virudhunagar (0.3). Coimbatore and Mayiladuthurai registered the highest positivity rate, at 1.9%. Ariyalur, Chengalpattu, Cuddalore, Erode, Kallakurichi, Krishnagiri, Namakkal, the Nilgiris, Salem, Sivagangai, Thanjavur, Tiruvallur, Thoothukudi, Tiruppur and Villupuram had 1% and above.

So far, 4,16,90,759 samples have been tested. A private laboratory — Sanjeevi Diagnostics, Erode — was approved for testing recently. The State has 288 testing facilities.

A total of 4,75,103 people were inoculated, taking the overall coverage so far in government vaccination centres to 2,86,14,582. Among those vaccinated were 2,91,656 people aged 18 to 44.

The cumulative coverage of private vaccination centres from May 1 stood at 20,60,099.