Tamil Nadu continued to report less than 1,500 cases of COVID-19 for the eighth day in a row. As many as 1,416 persons tested positive in the State on Thursday, of which 382 were from Chennai and 140, including two returnees, from Coimbatore. While 14 more persons died, 1,413 persons recovered.
Perambalur recorded no new cases, while Ramanathapuram reported one case of COVID-19. Five other districts reported cases in single digits — Ariyalur (5), Dharmapuri (9), Kallakurichi (3), Ranipet (6) and Tirupattur (8). There were 88 cases in Salem, 81 in Tiruvallur, 77 in Chengalpattu and 63 in Tiruppur.
Of the 14 fatalities, Chennai accounted for six deaths and Chengalpattu had two. Coimbatore, Erode, Karur, Salem, Tirupattur and Tiruvarur recorded one death each. The youngest was a 40-year-old man from Tiruvarur, who did not have any co-morbid conditions.
He died on December 1 due to COVID-19 pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Among the 1,416 persons who tested positive, eight were returnees from Assam, Delhi, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra. The fresh cases took the State’s tally to 7,86,163. Till date, a total of 7,63,428 persons have recovered and 11,747 have died in the State.
Currently, 10,988 persons are under treatment. This includes 3,536 persons in Chennai, 935 in Coimbatore, 529 in Chengalpattu, 522 in Salem, 520 in Tiruppur and 508 in Tiruvallur.
In the last 24 hours, 70,156 samples were tested in the State. Till date, 1,22,64,069 samples have been tested. Three private laboratories — Bharat Specialty Labs, Tirunelveli, Global Calcium Diagnostic Services, Hosur, and Gem Laboratory, Coimbatore — were approved for COVID-19 testing. As of date, there are 224 testing facilities — 67 in the government and 157 in the private sector.