Daily Covid-19 cases cross 500-mark in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: Fresh cases of Covid-19 crossed the 500-mark to 502 on Saturday and the active cases tally rose to 3,048. The death of an 84-year old man who died on Thursday was added to the state registry. While masks inside hospitals continue to remain mandatory, the state directorate of public health has advised the elderly and people with comorbidities to not to go into crowded closed spaces unless its essential, wear masks and maintain social distance.
The state has decided not to make masks mandatory for all public spaces as there are no large clusters like in the second wave or the third wave. The weekly average test positivity rate a key epidemiological indicator shows an increase to nearly 8% from around 3% a fortnight ago. The weekly test positivity rate is the number of persons tested positive over the total number of people tested during the week. A dozen districts had a daily test positivity rate above the state average of 8.4 on Saturday. Among them Chengalpet (11.5), Kanyakumari (11.4), Coimbatore (11.2), Tiruvallur (10.5) and Chennai (10.2) were the highest. "Like in the third wave, most samples sequenced are a sub lineage of Omicron. Key epidemiological factors such as hospital admissions, oxygen usage or deaths have not increased rapidly," said DPH Dr T S Selvavinayagam.

On Saturday, an 84-year-old man from Tirupur with diabetes and hypertension admitted on April 5 in Government Medical College Hospital in Tiruppur died on April 13.
This takes the Covid toll in 2023 to six. "Except one man in his 20s, all others who died were seniors with comorbid conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer, heart and kidney diseases," he said.
While Chennai reported 136 new cases, Kanyakumari had 52, Coimbatore recorded 42, Chengalpet and Tiruvallur logged 28 each and Salem had 27. While seven districts reported cases between 10 and 19, twenty other reported cases in single digits. Kallakurichi, Karur, Mayiladuthurai, Tirupathur and Virudhunagar had zero new cases.
Among active cases 152 patients were in hospitals including three in the intensive care unit and 68 others on oxygen therapy.
"Most people are isolated at home, requiring medications to treat mild symptoms such as fever and cough. Most people admitted to hospitals facing complications are elderly or people with comorbid conditions," said director of public health Dr T S Selvavinayagam.