Tamil Nadu: Covid-19 toll 100-plus for third day, dip in infections in south

CHENNAI: For the third day in a row, Tamil Nadu’s Covid-19 death toll crossed the 100-mark to a record 112. The victims included a four-day-old baby from Madurai. Among the deceased, five were brought dead to hospital and eight others had no comorbidities. TN’s overall Covid toll is now 4,461.
On the positive side, the number of people getting discharged was above the 6,000-mark for the past two days.With 6,031 patients discharged on Wednesday, the state now has 54,184 active cases.
The state reported 5,175 new Covid-19 cases taking the tally to 2,73,460. Chennai continued to report the most new cases (1,044) and deaths (25). Neighbouring districts of Chengalpet, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur together recorded 1,301 cases and 19 deaths.
The number of new cases has halved in Coimbatore. The district reported 112 cases on Wednesday while it registered 228 cases on Tuesday.
Commenting on the increasing death rate there, G Ramesh, deputy director of public health, Coimbatore, said they were trying to detect people with symptoms and comorbidities as early as possible. “We believe early detection and treatment will reduce mortality,” he said.
Salem, which was reporting around 60-70 cases a day last week, had 159 cases. Health officials from the western district attributed the increase to delay in reconciliation of earlier positive cases. R Sadheesh, commissioner of Salem corporation, said they have increased the number of tests done a day from 300 to 1,500. “We have tested more than a lakh people in the contained areas,” he added.
While Madurai reported 106 fresh cases, Infections in the southern districts continued to fall for the second day. Virudhunagar, which had seen more than 300 cases a day on an average for the past two weeks, reported only 67 new cases and no deaths. Tirunelveli too saw a drastic drop with 26 new cases, while Theni logged 278 new cases and seven deaths. Pudukottai and Trichy recorded 150 cases and 136 fresh cases.