Covid cases in Tamil Nadu inch towards 30k, 39 deaths in 24 hours

Tamil Nadu on Thursday added 28,561 new infections to its Covid aggregate, which rose to 30,42,796 while 39 more fatalities took the toll to 37,112 , the health department said.

Recoveries climbed to 28,26,479 with 19,978 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, leaving 1,79,205 active infections, a medical bulletin said.

Chennai, which accounted for majority of the fresh cases, has reported a decline with 7,520 new cases followed by Coimbatore 3,390, Chengalpet 2,196, Kanyakumari 1,148. On Thursday, Chennai had recorded 8,007 cases.

Those who tested positive today, include 14 returnees from domestic and one individual from the UK.

The number of RT-PCR tests conducted in Tamil Nadu breached the 6 crore-mark with 1,54,912 samples being tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined so far to 6.01 crore.

Meanwhile, Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian said the health department expects to administer 'precautionary booster dose' to 10 lakh people by end of the month.

After launching the weekly special camp to administer the 'Precautionary Booster Dose' to eligible individuals, he said 5,52,754 people were eligible to receive the booster doses and this number was expected to reach 10 lakh by end of the month.

"In order to vaccinate these 10 lakh people with a precautionary booster dose, we have organised special camps which will be held on Thursdays. This exercise is being held in 600 locations across Tamil Nadu", he told reporters.

On the Mega Vaccination Camp launched by the department, he said till date 3.32 crore people benefited from 18 such campaigns conducted across the state.

"Coming Saturday (January 22) we will be holding a mass vaccination drive, with 50,000 camps on that day", he said.

Subramanian noted that till date 88.6 per cent of the population in Tamil Nadu has received the first dose of vaccination while 63.4 per cent both the jabs. "(Of the 33.40 lakh eligible people) between the age of 15-18 years old we have vaccinated 25 lakh so far," he said. Tamil Nadu launched the vaccination drive for the adolescents on January 3.