CHENNAI: Fresh cases of Covid-19 dropped to 575 on Thursday when a dozen districts reported a marginal increase in new cases compared to their tally on Wednesday.
The four deaths in the state took the toll tally to 37,997. After discharging 1,913 patients, the state's active cases went below 10,000 to 9,440 after 53 days.
On January 2, active cases in the state were below 10,000 and the number steadily increased to 2.13 lakh by January 26. “A week after the new cases dropped, active cases started coming down swiftly,” said director of public health Dr TS Selvavinayagam.
Chennai (144) reported the highest number of cases and was the only district to report cases in three digits. Coimbatore had 81 new cases followed by 66 in Chengalpet. All other districts had 25 or fewer cases each. Tenkasi and Tirupathur had no new cases, while Kallakurichi and Theni had one new case each. Twelve districts including reported an increase between one and four cases more than their tally on Wednesday.
At least 14% of the active cases — 1,308 patients — were in hospitals. And among those admitted, nearly 17% were in ICU, according to the data sourced by the health department from the network of Covid-19 hospitals. The four deaths were one each from Chennai, Chengalpet, Mayiladuthurai and Ramanathapuram. A 47-year-old man who died at the Ramanathapuram Medical College Hospital was the youngest patient to die on Thursday. Doctors said he had Covid complications including 80% lung involvement.
