This story is from September 17, 2020

Tamil Nadu: Daily Covid toll below 60 for second time in 3 days

For the first time since late June, Tamil Nadu on Wednesday reported fewer than 60 Covid deaths for the second time in three days.Fresh cases stood at 5,684.With 57 deaths, the toll rose to 8,559.
Tamil Nadu: Daily Covid toll below 60 for second time in 3 days
A health worker collects a swab sample for Covid-19 test at Anna Pillai street in Chennai (file photo)
CHENNAI: For the first time since late June, Tamil Nadu on Wednesday reported fewer than 60 Covid deaths for the second time in three days. Fresh cases stood at 5,684. With 57 deaths, the toll rose to 8,559.
The number of active cases had fallen for two straight weeks and is now 46,633, a 5.2% drop since last Wednesday.
The state continued its policy of testing aggressively, screening 84,567 samples at 170 labs.

Chennai continued to report the maximum number of cases (983) and deaths (14). The three neighbouring districts of Chengalpet, Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur together reported 790 cases and 9 deaths.
Western Tamil Nadu recorded a total of 1,453 new cases and 12 deaths. Almost one-third of the infections were reported in Coimbatore.
Against this backdrop, K Rajamani, Coimbatore district collector, convened a meeting with private laboratories requesting them to start running government samples again.
When government-run labs in Coimbatore began getting overloaded, samples were passed to the private sector. However, when the latter did not receive reimbursements as promised and, they threatened to stop running government samples.

A health department official said that they were reassured about the payments and the city now had the capacity to test around 8,000 samples a day.
The central TN region comprising eight districts including Trichy recorded 663 fresh cases. Trichy recorded a mild decline with 98 cases. Speaking to TOI, Trichy collector S Sivarasu attributed the drop to strict containment measures, contact tracing and ramped up testing. A total of 1,800 samples were tested on Wednesday. "We are looking to bring down the cases to below 80 in the days to come," he said.
After recording below 700 new Covid-19 cases for three days in a row the total fresh cases on Wednesday touched 730 in south Tamil Nadu. The total deaths in the 10 southern districts dropped to four from 12 on Tuesday.
The youngest among them is a 30-year-old new mother in Tirunelveli. The woman, who was admitted at local government hospital on September 11, died of Covid pneumonia and acute respiratory failure coupled with postnatal conditions on Tuesday.
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