Tamil Nadu clocks 1,559 new Covid-19 cases

Tamil Nadu added 1,559 new infections to its Covid-19 tally, while 26 people succumbed to the disease, pushing the toll to 34,814, the health department said on Thursday.

Recoveries eclipsed new infections with 1,816 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 25,54,323, leaving 18,069 active infections, a medical bulletin said.

The total infection count touched 26,07,206 with the addition of fresh cases.

A total of 1,60,911 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 4.15 crore till date.

Four districts accounted for the majority of new cases with Coimbatore leading with 216, Chennai 175, Erode 115, Chengalpet 113 while the remaining was scattered across other districts.

Five districts reported new cases below double digits, while there were no fresh deaths in 23 districts. Ramanathapuram recorded the least number of new infections by adding two infections.

Among the 26 fatalities, 3 of the deceased were without comorbidity or pre-existing illness, the bulletin said.

Earlier in the day, Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian said the government has urged the collectors of districts bordering Kerala to verify the RT-PCR test report or Covid-19 vaccination certificate provided by people arriving from the neighbouring state.

Passengers from Kerala are also screened at railway stations and airports in Tamil Nadu, he told reporters.

On the vaccination front, he said a mega vaccination camp to inoculate people across Chennai was held by covering all the 200 wards that fall under the Corporation. "Vaccination has been going on in Tamil Nadu and today we are holding a camp in all the 200 wards of Chennai. We expect at least one lakh people to be covered under the initiative. Overall, we expect to cross the five lakh mark today", he said.

"Till date we have vaccinated 2.95 crore people," he noted.