Even as daily COVID-19 cases breached the 20,000-mark in Tamil Nadu on Thursday, Chennai registered an all-time high daily tally since the start of the pandemic, as 8,218 people tested positive for the infection. The fresh cases pushed the State’s active caseload past one lakh.
A total of 20,911 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the State as cases surged rapidly in several districts. With 1,56,402 samples tested, the overall positivity rate stood at 13.4%. During the second wave in mid-2021, the State’s daily tally had crossed 20,000 on May 2 (20,768). It took a little over a month for cases to drop below the 20,000-mark after hitting the peak on May 21, when 36,184 people tested positive.
Chennai surpassed its previous highest daily tally - 7,564 cases on May 12 during the second wave of the pandemic. The fresh cases took the city’s overall tally to 6,16,959.
A majority of the districts registered a rise in fresh cases. Cases rose from 1,840 on Wednesday to 2,030 on Thursday in Chengalpattu. Coimbatore’s daily caseload crossed 1,000 as 1,162 people tested positive. While Madurai logged 599 cases, fresh infections increased from 388 to 538 in Kanniyakumari. In Tiruppur, cases increased from 205 to 451. Ranipet and Salem also registered a spike as 484 and 426 people tested positive, respectively. While Tiruchi recorded 465 cases, there were 410 cases in Erode. From nine cases, Tenkasi’s daily tally rose to 153.
Though cases remained high, there was a marginal drop in fresh infections in a few districts when compared to the previous day - Kancheepuram (502), Tiruvallur (901) and Tirunelveli (415). So far, the State has recorded 28,68,500 cases of COVID-19.
There was a slight increase in deaths as 25 persons succumbed to the infection, taking the toll to 36,930. Chennai reported eight fatalities.
The number of patients under treatment/home isolation crossed one lakh. The State has 1,03,610 active cases, of which 46,515 are in Chennai and 11,701 are in Chengalpattu.
A total of 6,235 patients were discharged. The State tested 1,56,402 samples, taking the total to 5,91,11,153.
Out of 76 samples that were sent for whole genome sequencing and were pending validation, 56 were identified as the Omicron variant, 13 as the Delta variant and seven were not sequenced. This took the total number of confirmed cases of Omicron in the State to 241. A total of 1,45,343 people were vaccinated on Thursday.
