Tamil Nadu registers record 3,940 cases in a single day

As the Covid-19 case-loads shift from greater Chennai  to the districts, particularly across central and southern Tamil Nadu, the geographic spread of novel coronavirus is taking twists and turns.

Surprisingly,Chennai and its suburbs hotspot, which until recently was accounting for about 71 per cent of the total Covid-19 positive cases in Tamil Nadu, has for the first time on Sunday reduced its quota to the overall state's tally of coronavirus positive cases to about 65 per cent.

The per-day spike saw the State firmly add 3,940 fresh cases of persons testing positive for Covid-19, including another high of 1,992 cases in Chennai, to take the cumulative number of Covid-19 patients in Tamil Nadu to 82,875 till date. But the metro's overall positive cases till date at 53,762 now in percentage terms is about only 65 per cent of the State's total of Covid-19 positive cases, a significant drop of six percentage points.

With the State surpassing 30,000 persons being tested every day now on an average in the last one week - on Sunday 31,505 persons took the Covid-19 test on a day the state got the Centre's nod for its 90th testing lab, Meenakshi Hospital Lab Services, Thanjavur-, the graph for cases by their outcome, show that the number of active cases is rising faster than the number of cured patients discharged from various hospitals.

For example, on Sunday, the number of active coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu went up 2,443 to touch 35,656 in all, while the number of patients discharged on Sunday was up by only 1,443 to take the total number of discharged patents till date to 45,537.  This partly explains why the State government is adding more beds to hospitals, both private and public.  

The distribution pattern of those testing positive for the virus in the districts is skewed, with next to Chennai, Madurai district hitting a new high of 284 cases,  followed by Chengalpattu-183, Kallakurichi-124, Tiruvannamalai-114, Thiruvallur-99, Kancheepuram-92, Vellore-84, Salem-79, Thiruvarur-78, Theni-62, Virudhunagar-58 and Villupuram-47.

The number of Covid-19 deaths continues to jump, now in an average group of 50 a day. On Sunday, the Health department confirmed another 54 deaths to take the overall death toll due to the virus in the State to 1,079.

Sadly, among the deaths confirmed was that of a one-and-a-half-year-old male baby who tested positive for Covid-19 and admitted to Villupuram medical college hospital, died due to complex set of medical conditions like cerebral palsy, 'aspiration pneumonia' and shock, says the medical report. A 17-year-old youth from Thiruvallur was among the deaths due to comorbidities including Vitamin-D deficiencies and hypo-parathryodism. The oldest patient to die in this list was a 91-year-old diabetic from Chennai.