After 51 days, active cases in Tamil Nadu crossed the 6,000-mark with 6,222 patients under treatment for the viral infection as on Thursday. TN added 989 fresh cases, the highest in 2021. Chennai continued to top the table, adding close to 400 new cases pushing its active case tally to 2,394. Of the nine deaths reported on Thursday, Chennai and Thanjavur reported three each.
On January 17, active cases dropped to 5,940 for the first time since May 2020. Cases continued to drop until the second week of February when fresh clusters were reported almost every day from a few districts, including Chennai and its neighbours Chengalpet, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur.
On an average, the state is now testing more than 70,000 people compared to 50,000 in January. With increase in testing, cases too have been on the rise, particularly in Chennai. The average number of daily cases reported in Chennai over the last one week has increased to 326 compared to 250 last week. Epidemiologist says all indicators – positivity rate, number of cases, doubling time for infection, hospital occupancy – indicate the infection rate is up in Chennai. Like in May 2020, cases in Chennai are having a cascading effect on its neighbours. Together, the Chennai region reported nearly 60% of the total new cases on Thursday. After Chennai and Chengalpet (86), Coimbatore (77) had the third highest number of fresh cases. Barring Sivaganga and Perambalur, all districts reported fresh cases.
Meanwhile, 1,21,776 people including 47,386 senior citizens, took the vaccine on Thursday. At the end of 55 days of the drive, 18,42,284 have taken their shots.