21 districts report new cases; Chennai, Chengalpattu report 4.6% TPR

CHENNAI: Twenty-one districts in Tamil Nadu reported new COVID cases on Saturday, taking the number of fresh cases to more than 200 for yet another day. While most of the new cases were reported in Chennai and its neighbouring districts, there still are a larger number of districts where cases are cropping up yet again – up from 13 districts that reported at least one case on Friday.

Of the 217 new cases that the State added on Saturday, 111 were from Chennai, followed by Chengalpattu with 33, Tiruvallur that had 14 and Kancheepuram which reported 12. That is, 170 cases – or nearly four out of five cases – were from the region alone, show the data released by the Directorate of Public Health.

Coimbatore, too, reported 12 cases, while Kanniyakumari had 6 cases and Madurai and Tiruchy had 5 each. Two cases each were recorded in Erode, Kallakkurichi, Ranipet and Tirunelveli, and one case each was reported in Namakkal, The Nilgiris, Perambalur, Salem, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Thoothukudi, Tirupur, Villupuram and Virudhunagar, the bulletin from DPH added.

Adding these, the total number pandemic cases reported in Tamil Nadu has gone up to 34,57,133, of which 1,231 are active cases.

Like the new cases, Chennai also has the highest number of active cases at 684, followed by Chengalpattu with 208 cases. These two districts also had the highest test positivity rate (TPR) of 4.6 per cent – TPR is calculated a day later – up from 4.2 per cent in Chennai on Friday. Though the overall positivity rate is much lower at 1.6 per cent, it still is higher than 1.3 per cent that the State reported a day earlier.

The bulletin added that 145 people were declared recovered from the viral infection across the State during the day, taking the total recoveries to 34,17,877. Much to the relief of health authorities and State government, there has not been any COVID-related deaths for yet another day despite the surge, and the toll so far remains at 38,025.

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