Record 2,710 cases in a day, Tamil Nadu Covid-19 tally crosses 62,000

CHENNAI: No district was left untouched as Tamil Nadu recorded its highest-ever daily count of 2,710 cases on Monday. The total number of cases in the state soared to 62,087 and the toll reached 794 after 37 deaths.
While Chennai continued to remain the worst-hit district with 1,487 fresh cases, Madurai, which will go into lockdown from Wednesday, recorded 157 cases. In the north, Tiruvannamalai logged 139 fresh cases followed by Chengalpet (126), Tiruvallur (120), Kancheepuram (56) and Cuddalore (63). Three other districts that recorded more than 50 cases were Tuticorin (63), Ranipet (52) and Trichy (51).
The doubling time – period taken for the total number of cases to double – has been pushed to 16 days (with a seven-day average) in Tamil Nadu and 18 days in Chennai, as per calculations by epidemiologists at the National Institute of Epidemiology in Chennai. The doubling rate for TN was two weeks and a day less for Chennai on June 14.While this indicates a slight slowdown in the infection rate, districts such as Madurai, Tiruvannamalai and Vellore have seen more than 2% growth in the number of cases since June 15. These three districts have seen the highest growth in fresh cases, besides Chennai and its three neighbours.
While district administrations said people from Chennai and adjoining areas were bringing the infection into their region, health minister C Vijayabaskar maintained that cases were high because of the aggressive testing strategy. The 87 authorised testing labs, including 46 government labs, run to full capacity in three shifts, he said.
The state, he said, follows a aggressive and focussed testing policy. “We even put CM to RT-PCR tests and his results returned negative,” he said. The state has tested more than 9.1lakh samples compared to7.7 lakh in Maharashtra, he said. On Monday, the state had tested 25,234 people compared to 29,963 on Sunday.
Fever camps were being conducted across containment zones for early diagnosis, testing, isolation and treatment of positive cases. Of the 37 casualties, 10 died with 24 hours of admission. While 23 of them were above 60 years of age, there were two people in their 30s, six each in their 40s and 50s. The total death toll, however, did not include more than 200 Covid deaths in Chennai registered by the civic body, but not recorded in the state count.
On Monday, 1,358 people were declared fit for discharge by doctors. “So far 34,112 people have recovered from the illness. Our recovery rate is above 55% due to effective treatment given by doctors and staff,” he said. Many doctors including Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital dean Dr R Jayanthi have tested positive for the infection, but most of them return to work after the mandatory period, the health minister said.
While the state and medical teams have been doing their bit, the incidence can be brought down only if people stay indoors, wear masks when they step out, follow hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette, he said.