Tamil Nadu leaps into second place on corona positive cases

Salem/Chennai: Tamil Nadu leapfrogged Gujarat and Delhi into second place in terms of the number of coronavirus positive cases on Friday, with 9,674 CASES, even as public health authorities confirmed two more deaths, taking the toll to 66.

The state’s case load has been increasing by at least 440 every day for the last 11 days with an average growth rate of 9 per cent per day. The burgeoning has largely been due to the rapid spread of the virus in Chennai, which accounts for 5,625 cases followed far behind by Thiruvalluvar with 510.

While the number of patients found positive for Covid-19 on Thursday was marginally lower at 447, Chennai alone accounted for 363 of the latest cases.

Tamil Nadu health minister, C. Vijayabaskar took satisfaction in the fact that the per-day incidence of new positive cases had for the first time in last ten days dropped below the 500-mark.

The health minister told reporters that the state has been aggressive in its testing: by Thursday evening, the number of samples tested across Tamil Nadu till date had crossed the three lakh mark, the highest in the country so far.

Affirming that Tamil Nadu was "proceeding on the right path" in managing and containing the virus, he said the government has deputed a 400-member strong team of paramedics to test all those returning to Tamil Nadu from other states and abroad on special trains/flights.

He said the arrival of 1,076 persons from Mumbai in various districts of Tamil Nadu has led to some increase in positive cases today. For instance, Sivaganga district had not had a single case in the last 23 days, but counted one today, while Tirunelveli reported 13 fresh Covid-19 cases.

At the Salem Mohan Kumaramanglam Government hospital, of the 35 Covid-19 patients being treated, 33 persons have been cured and discharged till date. Only three others including two from Salem district and one from Dharmapuri district continue to be under treatment there. 

As far as Tamil Nadu was concerned, Dr Vijayabaskar said, "We are proceeding on the right path." Senior WHO official Dr Sowmya Swaminathan who participated in the video conference with chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and ICMR officials on Thursday, has lauded Tamil Nadu's approach in mitigating the Covid-19 crisis, going on as per WHO/ICMR norms, the health minister said.

Dr Swaminathan expressed support for Tamil Nadu's testing programme, the effective line of treatment given to Covid-19 patients in the state and its lowest mortality rate of 0.67 per cent.