Covid-19: Active infections in Tamil Nadu dipped 10% in past week

The number of active cases continued to dip for the seventh consecutive day on Thursday in Tamil Nadu. With 2,80,426 people fighting Covid-19, TN had almost 10% fewer active infections than last week. The number of deaths, however, continues to remain the same with the state reporting 450 or more Covid-19 deaths every day for the past 10 days. On Thursday, 460 people succumbed to the infection taking the death toll to 25,665. Almost three-fourth of Thursday's Covid victims had comorbidities.
Drop in new cases: Yet again, recoveries (32,221) outnumbered fresh cases (24,405) on Thursday. Coimbatore, with 2,980 new cases, reported 48 deaths but the number of discharges per day has increased by roughly 65%. Until last week, the district reported less than 3,000 recoveries a day but the figure is close to 4,500 now. In Chennai, the number of new cases (2,062) reported is on the decline and test positivity rate is dropping to 6%. Similar trend was observed in neighbouring Chengalpet (983 cases), Tiruvallur (695) and Kancheepuram (492). In south TN, while cases have dropped in hotspots Madurai (519) and Kanyakumari (739) in the past three days, Theni (481) witnessed a marginal increase. Trichy (823 cases) too witnessed a drop on Thursday.
Bed availability: The state has added close to 5,000 beds in Covid hospitals across districts. This coupled with drop in new cases has reduced demand for beds, particularly oxygen-supported ones. There were 11,345 vacant O2 beds in TN on Thursday. However, occupancy rate of ICU beds is high in most districts. Chennai had only 261 ICU beds vacant. "The hospitalisation period is still 10 to 14 days. That is why we have attached three or four step-down centres to major hospitals such as Omandurar and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital," said a senior health department official. After 3 to 4 days of treatment in ICUs, patients are treated in step-down wards until discharge, he said.
Vaccination: A total of 2,89,430 people were vaccinated in TN on Thursday. Health minister Ma Subramanain said the Centre had allocated 42 lakh doses of vaccince to TN for June, of which 5 lakh doses are expected to reach the state this week. "We have more than 6.6 lakh doses in stock and can continue the vaccination drives for the next three days."