Tamil Nadu records massive spike in Covid cases

Of the new cases, as many as 1,489 were in Chennai, while its neighbours Chengalpattu added 290 cases and Tiruvallur 147. Coimbatore, which was second only to Chennai till recently, is fourth with 120 cases, and Vellore (105) was the other district that had more than 100 new cases.

There were 48 imported cases, which included 17 from Bangladesh and 10 from West Bengal, who came to the State by road. Among other foreign nationals were one from Ghana and another from UAE. The sudden surge has taken the number of active cases in Tamil Nadu to 12,412. A total of 1,03,798 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 5,78,57,004. As many as 15 districts reported new infections in single digits while Mayiladuthurai added zero new cases, the bulletin said.

Recording a rise of more than 600 cases in a day, Chennai logged 1,489 new COVID infections on Tuesday. The city accounted for more than half of the new cases reported in the State in a day.

While five more patients infected by the Omicron variant were discharged, taking the active cases to 13, three more international passengers reported S-gene-drop and two others tested positive for COVID-19. So far, 311 international passengers have tested positive, of which 220 reported S-gene-drop and 121 Omicron cases have been confirmed in Tamil Nadu.

Chennai has the highest number of active cases (5,593), which is about 45 per cent of the State’s total. Currently, there are 12,412 active cases in Tamil Nadu.

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Several other districts saw a surge in the cases, with Chengalpattu reporting 290 cases, followed by 147 in Tiruvallur and 120 in Coimbatore. A total of 105 cases were reported in Villupuram. As many as 1,03,573 people were tested in the past 24 hours. Currently, the overall test positivity rate is 1.7 per cent, with Chennai recording the highest of 4.3 per cent. Chengalpattu was at 3.2 per cent.

Nine deaths were reported, bringing the total toll to 36,805. A total of 674 people were discharged from several hospitals across the State post recovery and a total of 27,06,370 recoveries from COVID-19 have been reported.