Chennai: Coronavirus infections stood at 5,528 and fatalities at 64 in the whole State, while in Chennai there were 991 new cases and 11 deaths on Thursday.
The districts that had high numbers were Chengalpattu 279, Coimbatore 440, Cuddalore 263, Salem 300 and Thiruvallur 296.
In the five districts of Coimbatore, Salem, Nagapattinam, Thiruvannamalaai and Cuddalore, infection would peak in two weeks, said Health Minister C Vijaybaskar.
Speaking after inspecting the expansion of Covid-19 wards at the Stanley Medical College Hospital on Thursday, Vijaybaskar said the government had taken all precautionary measures to keep the spread of the virus under control in the five districts.
While the average rate of positivity in the State was less than 10 per cent, in the districts of Krishnagiri and Cuddalore it was at 11.7 per cent, he said, adding that it would be brought down to 10 per cent soon.
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had praised Tamil Nadu for efficiently monitoring and controlling the spread of Coronavirus, the Minister said. Every day an average of 85,000 tests were done in the State and the total number of tests done so far was 55,44,850, he said.
The recovery rate in the State was 88 per cent, he said adding that the death rate at the moment was 1.68 and that efforts were on to bring it down to 1 per cent.
The number of beds had been increased to 1,42,000 from the 75,000 in the initial stages of the pandemic and in Stanley Medical College Hospital 400 beds had been added to take the total number to 12,000, he said.
All hospitals were all well equipped to treat Covid-19 patients and the recently started online consultation facility had helped over a lakh of people, he said. Though there were 3,300 ventilators, what was now required was oxygen supply facility, which the State had provided in all hospitals.
When asked by the vaccine trials, he said that it had just started and that it would take a long time for it to be used on people.
The best vaccine to prevent Coronavirus infection was facemasks, said Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, who was also present at the occasion. He said levying fines on those who violated the safety norms like wearing of facemasks and other things would start in a few days.
