Tamil Nadu recorded 20,768 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, taking the State’s tally to 12,07,112. The toll touched 14,346 with 153 deaths, including 81 in private hospitals and 72 in government facilities.
An international passenger who arrived from the U.A.E. and 25 passengers who arrived from other States tested positive on Sunday. They included 11 from Andhra Pradesh, three each from Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha, besides two from Karnataka and one each from Uttar Pradesh, Mizoram, and Tripura.
Across the State, 17,576 patients were discharged, taking the total number of people discharged to 10,72,322. The number of active cases across the State on Sunday stood at 1,20,444, according to the daily bulletin of the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
Chennai district reported 6,078 new cases on Sunday while 5,702 patients were discharged. The district recorded 29 deaths.
The number of active cases in the district stood at 31,913. The tally in the district rose to 3,45,966 and 3,09,233 people have been discharged.
Chennai and its neighbouring districts of Chengalpattu (16) and Kancheepuram (13) recorded the most number of deaths in a day. In Salem district, 12 persons died of infection.
Chengalpattu with 1,582 new infections had the second highest number of cases followed by Coimbatore with 1,441 new cases and three more deaths.
Among those who died of the infection, 40 had no pre-existing ailments while 113 persons died of complications due to co-morbidities. The oldest persons who died on Sunday were all aged 64 and none of them had any co-morbidities.
A 29-year-old man from Salem, who tested positive on April 27, was diabetic. He was admitted on April 26 to a private hospital with fever for two days, cough and difficulty in breathing for a week. He died on May 1 and the hospital recorded it as death due to COVID-19 pneumonia.
Availability of beds
As of May 1, in Chennai district, 33% of beds were vacant in hospitals, including private and government. As many as 1,927 beds (38%) were vacant in COVID Care Centres.
On Sunday, 1,43,083 samples were tested. The State has so far tested 2,29,56,942 using the RT-PCR method.
Vaccination drive
On Sunday, the vaccination drive touched the lowest ever mark with just 6,436 people being vaccinated. In 3,101 sessions to administer Covishield and Covaxin, as many as 463 health workers; 497 front line workers; 3,331 people in the 45 to 59 years age group with pre-existing health conditions and 2,145 senior citizens were vaccinated.