Tamil Nadu reports 1,942 new Covid cases, 33 deaths

CHENNAI: Fresh cases in Tamil Nadu dropped to 1,942 on Thursday compared to 1,964 on Wednesday. The sharpest fall was reported from Chennai and Coimbatore became the district with highest number of cases after an increase in new cases.
On Friday, Chennai reported 217 new cases against 243 it logged on Thursday, while cases in Coimbatore rose from 229 to 240 during the same time period. Thanjavur reported the sharpest rise from 77 cases to 102 cases.

Barring Chennai and Coimbatore active cases were fewer than 2000 in all districts, although nearly 90% of beds in both these districts are vacant. “We have asked all districts to increase surveillance and testing. While there was a quick fall in cases between May and July, new cases in TN has remained almost stagnant at between 1,900 and 1800 since July 19,” said health secretary J Radhakrishnan. “This is because of small clusters we see periodically across all districts. In most cases, health workers have found violations in pandemic protocols,” he said. Of the 33 deaths, there were six in Coimbatore, five in Salem, four in Tiruppur, three in Kanyakumari, and two each in Chennai, Thiruvarur and Pudukottai.
Meanwhile, TN received 7.6 lakh doses of Covishield and 1.3 lakh of Covaxin on Thursday, when most vaccine centres were complaining of low stock. Over the last three days the number of vaccinations has been coming down. On Thursday, for the first time in August, the number of vaccinations went below 1 lakh to 92334, after reporting 1.07 lakh on Wednesday and 1.5 lakh on Tuesday. “The vaccines we received today have been dispatched to districts,” said director of public health Dr T S Selvavinayagam.
Active cases cross 900 in Pondy again
The active Covid-19 cases crossed 900-mark yet again in Puducherry. The territory reported 109 fresh cases even as 59 patients recovered in the last 24 hours taking the active cases to 914 on Thursday. A 61-year old woman from Puducherry and an 86-year-old man from Mahe died of the infection taking the death toll to 1,803. So far, 7.5 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered.