Coming days challenging in controlling COVID-19, says TN Chief Secy

The recoveries stood at 2,386, taking the total number of people walking out of health care institutions after getting cured to 7.13 lakh till date, a health department bulletin said. The COVID-19 toll in the state climbed to 11,344 with 20 related fatalities. Active cases including those in isolation were at 18,894. Meanwhile, Chief Secretary K Shanmugham said being the festival season, the coming days will be challenging as far as controlling coronavirus is concerned. 

Stressing the need to wear face masks to prevent the spread of the virus, he said restrictions can be relaxed if there was a decline in active cases. Briefing reporters in Coimbatore after reviewing various developmental schemes and COVID-19 situation, Shanmugham said the number of infections was more in villages and there was a need to ramp up testing in districts. As many as 75,384 samples were tested on Sunday with the cumulative specimens examined till date touching 1.05 crore. Chennai accounted for 2.04 lakh cases of the total 7.43 lakh cases in the state. The state capital clocked 601 new infections followed by Coimbatore 205, Thiruvallur 133, Chengalpet 120, Erode 103. Ramanathapuram recorded the least with seven people contracting the contagion. All the 20 deceased had comorbidity or chronic illness. Seventeen of them were above the age of 60 years. The youngest victim was a 47 year old man from Salem while the oldest being a 85 year old man from Coimbatore. Of the 11,344 deaths, Chennai alone accounted for 3,716, the bulletin said.