Covid fatalities lowest in India, claims Tamil Nadu as total cases inch towards 14K
CHENNAI: The total number of persons testing positive for Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu raced towards the 14,000-mark with 13,967 cases, even as the per-day spike on Thursday saw numbers zoom to 776. Of these, 87 were accounted by returnees from abroad and other states, while Chennai alone saw 567 new cases.
A fractional increase in the mortality rate was noticed as it went up from 0.67 per cent to 0.70 per cent. After seven deaths were confirmed by public health authorities on Thursday, the state's total death toll rose to 94.
However, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Dr C Vijayabaskar sought to play it down saying the fatality rate in the state was still the lowest in the country. He said four of the deaths occurred in private hospitals in Chennai, remaining three in government hospitals, but all the unfortunate deaths confirmed today, save one, had other medical complications.
Dr Vijayabaskar said the total samples lifted today for testing was 12,564 and Tamil Nadu has tested 3,22,532 samples since the Covid-19 outbreak. This is about 15 per cent of the total number of tests done in the country as a whole so far, he said, adding, the number of testing labs in the state has gone up to 56.
The Health minister said, barring the red zones and containment areas in Chennai and some of the northern districts, 28 districts of Tamil Nadu had not reported any fresh Covid-19 positive case since the last several days. "We have controlled the spread of the virus infection in 28 districts," he said, adding, it was more people testing positive at check posts and airports, among incoming persons that continued to worry the State.
Dr. Vijayabaskar said as many as 61 passengers, who returned from various countries abroad and at present in the Chennai airport quarantine, had tested positive for the virus. But some of them, after initially testing negative, were strangely testing positive during the exit screen test. The minister said the state government was hopeful of meeting all these challenges, adding, they were "intensifying the screening and testing" in Greater Chennai.
Earlier in the day, there was brief flutter at the Secretariat when information went around that three employees in Public Accounts department had tested positive for the virus and the security staff of one of the MLAs' had also tested positive.
In the city, about 140 pregnant women are also suffering from the infection, but as many as 400 patients who tested positive for Covid-19 were also discharged today from various hospitals across Tamil Nadu after treatment.
OVER 750 STRANDED IN AYODHYA REACH CHENNAI
To drive home his point that the recovery rate in the state was good, Dr Vijayabaskar in fact shared on Twitter the testimony video of an elderly woman from Tamil Nadu, who had been stranded in Ayodhya due to the lockdown. After reaching Chennai along with 750 others by train, she had declared: "Tamil Nadu government's treatment is the best treatment."
