COVID-19: TN reports 2,652 new infections, 36 fatalities

Chennai, July 12 (PTI): Tamil Nadu has reported 36 deaths due to COVID-19 and 2,652 new cases, which include that of a returnee from Andhra Pradesh, the Health Department said on Monday.

The deaths during the day pushed the toll to 33,454 and the overall caseload to 25,21,438 so far.

Recoveries eclipsed new infections with 3,104 people getting recovered today aggregating to 24,56,165 leaving 31,819 active infections, a bulletin said.

The highest daily infection was 36,184 on May 21. Since then, there has been a decline.

On May 30, the cases dropped below 30,000; on June 7 the numbers were below 20,000; and on June 17 they were less than 10,000.

As many as 29 districts reported new infections in double digits while there were no fresh deaths in 20 districts, the bulletin said.

Chennai, the State capital, added 165 new infections aggregating to 5,35,278 till date. The number of related fatalities reached 8,262.

Among districts, Coimbatore added the most number of new cases at 290 in the last 24 hours while Perambalur was the least with 12.

The testing of RT-PCR samples stood at 1,40,463 in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 3,46,86,755 till date.

Among the 36 fatalities, 24 patients died in government hospitals and the remaining in private ones.

Seven of the deceased were without any co-morbidity or pre-existing illness, the bulletin said.

Meanwhile, Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian said the government has vaccinated 1,62,61,985 people till date and 7,53,280 doses were in stock.

On the Zika virus, he said the Health Department in Tamil Nadu and the one in Kerala were testing samples from people in the border districts of the two States.

"So far, 2,660 houses in the border region were inspected and none of the residents tested positive for the virus," he said, adding travellers arriving from Kerala through various modes of transport were checked at the point of entry such as bus termini and railway stations.

"We continue to hold tests for people who arrive from Kerala either by bus or train. This has been the case in the last four or five days," he said.

In a statement, the directorate of public health and preventive medicine said it has tested a total of 65 samples collected from the people bitten by Aedes mosquitoes from the border areas of Kerala and the samples tested negative for Zika.

This virus is transmitted by such mosquitoes that also transmit dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever, it said.

On the black fungus disease, Subramanian said 3,929 people were infected and 122 deaths were reported till date.

To treat the infected, he said, the government had set up special wards in government hospitals across Tamil Nadu.

"The hospitals are equipped with 7,000 beds which include a 500-bedded facility each in Chennai and in Madurai," he added. PTI VIJ NVG NVG