MADURAI/VIRUDHUNAGAR
A total of 334 people – all indigenous cases – tested positive for COVID-19 in Madurai on Tuesday, taking the tally to 4,674. The fresh cases included those with influenza-like illnesses (ILI), those waiting for different surgeries, pregnant women and frontline workers.
The district, which marked eight deaths to have a toll of 77, has 3,486 active cases.
In the biggest single day spurt registered since March-end, Virudhunagar reported 253 fresh cases on Tuesday.
However, Collector R. Kannan said it was due to the results of backlog samples of around 2,000 tests coming from laboratories of different districts. “Actually, the positivity rate today has been only around 11.2%. The overall positivity remains at 5.2% out of the 24,000-odd tests conducted so far,” he added.
The district still has a backlog of over 3,000 samples. It has 670 active cases and reported the 10th death.
Meanwhile, Narikudi police station was closed as a policeman tested positive. Sundarapandiyam town panchayat office too was closed after its executive officer tested positive.
Tirunelveli recorded 181 new cases – 174 of them indigenous – on Tuesday. The district now has 591 active cases.
Thoothukudi added 144 cases to its tally. There are 535 active cases in the district.
Kanniyakumari, which reported 119 fresh cases, has 438 active cases. Sixty-two cases were added to the tally of Tenkasi, which now has 273 active cases.
Theni district recorded 94 new cases – 54 men, 31 women and nine children. Theni reported 40 of the fresh cases and Cumbum 16 cases.
There were 12 new cases from Manamadurai, Devakottai and Tirupuvanam in Sivaganga district.
Ramanathapuram reported 25 new cases on Tuesday, and its tally rose to 1,479. The new cases were from Mudukalathur, Ramanathapuram, Rameswaram, Kilakarai and Devipattinam. Five cases were cross-notified to other districts.
Five cases were recorded in Dindigul, which has a total of 730 positive cases. Three deaths were reported from Dindigul, Athur and Oddanchatram.