692 new cases in Tamil Nadu, 306 in Chennai

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu has intensified testing as new Covid-19 cases continue to increase. Until Saturday, the state screened less than 16,000 samples and less than 600 people tested positive for the virus.
But in the last 24 hours, the state screened around 19,500 samples (22% increase) and 692 people were found infected across the state. In Chennai, the daily positive cases crossed the 300-mark on Sunday, with the city recording 306 new cases. Chengalpet (122 cases), Thiruvallur (48) and Kancheepuram (43) also recorded a significant jump in new cases. Only seven districts in TN reported zero new infections.
Among the said four districts, Chengalpet had a very high Test Positivity Rate (TPR) of 9.9 percent highest in the state. This was slightly above Chennai's TPR of 7.5 percent and almost thrice that of the state's average figure.
Citing the Union government's covid guidelines, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said strict restrictions were required only when the TPR crossed 10 percent, and currently, there was no such scenario in the state.
Corroborating this, government data suggests that only 2 percent of the infected patients needed hospitalisation in Tamil Nadu and less than 0.5% needed oxygen support due to breathing support or breathing difficulties.
However, there has been a sharp decline in the number of people getting discharged following treatment. Only 52 recovered from the disease on Sunday compared to 200 or above on Saturday and Friday.