Active COVID infections surge past 1 lakh in TN

Tamil Nadu continued to witness an uptick in daily Covid-19 cases as 20,911 infections were added afresh on Thursday, pushing the aggregate to 28,68,500, while the toll mounted to 36,930 with 25 more fatalities.

Recoveries too climbed to 27,27,960 with 6,235 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, leaving 1,03,610 active infections, a medical bulletin said.

The last time active Covid-19 cases breached one lakh mark in the state was in April 2021.

Chennai accounted for majority of new coronavirus cases with 8,218 followed by Chengalpet 2,030, Coimbatore 1,162, Thiruvallur 901, Madurai 599, while the remaining was scattered across other districts.

Those who tested positive today included 25 returnees from domestic and overseas locations. A total of 1,56,402 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 5.91 crore.

On the status of Omicron variant in Tamil Nadu, the bulletin said 56 more cases were detected in the State taking the overall tally to 241 till date.

"With the addition of 56 cases identified through whole genomic sequencing, the total OMICRON cases in Tamil Nadu so far stood at 241", it said.

Tamil Nadu reported its first Omicron case on December 15.

As many as 231 people have been discharged till date leaving zero active Omicron infections. Ten Omicron cases have been cross notified to Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala, New Delhi and Jharkhand, the bulletin said.

Meanwhile, Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian said the weekly exercise of conducting the COVID mega vaccination camp would not be held this week in view of the festival holidays.

"Till date, we have vaccinated 3.32 crore people through the 17 Mega Vaccination camps held every week," he told reporters.

On the precautionary doses administered, he said 60,051 people have received it till date and more than 75 per cent between the age group of 15-18 years have received the vaccination doses.