Coronavirus | Toll crosses 30,000 even as fresh cases dip

State sees 11,805 infections and 267 deaths; Salem records 24 deaths and Chennai 21; vaccination coverage drops to 68,046

Tamil Nadu government and Chennai Corporation officials inspect the 24X7 Corona Screening Centre set up at Kendriya Vidyalaya campus in Pallavan Salai, Chennai. Photo: Twitter/@chennaicorp

On a day when fresh infections dropped to 11,805 in Tamil Nadu, the State’s toll due to COVID-19 surpassed 30,000, as another 267 people succumbed to it on Tuesday.

 

Salem reported more deaths than Chennai. There were 24 deaths in Salem, 21 in Chennai, 20 in Thanjavur and 19 in Cuddalore. Coimbatore and Kanniyakumari reported 16 deaths each, while four districts — Chengalpattu, Tiruvallur, Tiruchi and Vellore — had 14 deaths each.

This took the total number of deaths due to COVID-19 to 30,068.

Of the 37 districts, six saw over 500 cases each, accounting for nearly 48% of the total cases. Coimbatore topped the table with 1,563 new cases, followed by Erode with 1,270. Chennai’s daily count dropped below 800, as 793 people tested positive for COVID-19, while there were 759 cases in Salem, 728 in Tiruppur and 541 in Thanjavur.

The daily count remained under 100 in five districts — Ariyalur (67), Perambalur (53), Pudukottai (81), Ramanathapuram (82) and Sivaganga (77).

With this, Chennai’s case tally touched 5,26,614, Coimbatore’s 2,06,833, Chengalpattu’s 1,52,257 and Tiruvallur’s 1,08,369. The State has so far reported 23,78,298 cases.

The number of patients under treatment dropped to 1,25,215 in the State. Coimbatore has the most number of active cases at 15,449, followed by Tiruppur (12,738) and Erode (10,589). On Tuesday, 23,207 people were discharged after treatment, taking the total figure to 22,23,015.

One more private laboratory — Metro Diagnostics in Porur — has been approved for COVID-19 testing. With this, there are 273 testing facilities in the State.

A total of 59,261 beds are vacant in COVID-19 hospitals and health centres. This includes 29,944 oxygen-supported beds and 3,246 ICU ones. There are 52,435 vacant beds in COVID-19 Care Centres.

Vaccination update

After vaccinating over two lakh people a day in the last three days, vaccination coverage dropped to 68,046 on Tuesday. This included 40,104 people in the 18-44 age group.

Inoculation was held in 1,399 sessions — 1,077 for Covishield and 322 for Covaxin. The State’s overall coverage stands at 1,06,65,464 people.