CHENNAI: In the past seven days, Tamil Nadu added 1,464 new Covid-19 cases including the 255 cases it reported on Monday. The weekly sum of cases has nearly tripled since May 30 when the sum of cases was 451.
“That week, Tamil Nadu was reporting between 59 and 89 cases a day,” said director of public health Dr T S Selvavinayagam. The weekly sum of cases crossed 1,000 marks on June 10 after three months. “Cases were declining steadily after the third wave, but newer variants have triggered the surge again. It started with educational institutions and now we are seeing clusters of cases in workplaces, families, and apartment complexes,” he said.
Active cases rose to 1,453 after the state discharged 255 patients from the state registry. However, there were 99 patients in hospitals on Monday. This includes 42 patients in the oxygen beds and seven others in the ICU – three in Chennai, two in Vellore, and one each in Dindigul and Kanyakumari. On May 30, when the state had 493 active cases there were 34 patients in the hospital – 10 on oxygen beds and one in the ICU. Although the percentage of active cases admitted to hospitals has remained stable at 7%, there has been an increase in absolute numbers.
On Monday, Chennai (127) continued to report the highest number of fresh cases and was the only district to report cases in three digits. After Chennai, Chengalpet (44), Tiruvallur (16) and Kancheepuram (15) reported the highest number of cases.
There were 14 cases in Coimbatore, six in Tirunelveli, five each in Tuticorin and Trichy, Four each in Kanyakumari, Madurai and Ranipet, two in Salem and one each in Dindigul, Kallakurichi, Nagapattinam, Tenkasi, Thiruvarur, Tiruppur and Vellore. Nineteen districts reported no new cases compared to 30 on May 30. The daily test positivity rate has increased to 1.7 compared to 0.5.
