Covid-19 pandemic: Tamil Nadu hits another peak in daily cases

Daily COVID cases in Tamil Nadu reached a new peak as 6,983 people tested positive for the deadly virus in the last 24 hours, pushing the total caseload to 27,67,432 while 11 more fatalities mounted the toll to 36,825.

As many as eight districts, including the state capital accounted for the majority of new infections, which have been on an upward trend over the last few days.

Recoveries remained low with 721 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 27,07,779 leaving 22,828 active infections, a health bulletin said.

A total of 1,28,736 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 5.81 crore.

The sharpest increase in fresh infections was reported in Chennai with 3,759 cases, followed by Chengalpet 816, Tiruvallur 444, Coimbatore 309, Vellore 223, Kancheepuram 185, Tuticorin 132, Tiruchirappalli 123, while the remaining was spread across other districts.

Chennai had reported 2,481 new cases on Wednesday.

Four districts reported new infections in single digits with Theni recording the least with six cases.

Among those who tested positive include 44 returnees from domestic and overseas locations, the bulletin said.

As for the status of Omicron variant cases in the state, the bulletin said there were no active cases as all those infected were discharged after successful recovery.

Total Omicron cases reported in the state was 121 of which 117 people were discharged leaving nil active cases. Four cases were cross-notified to Kerala, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh, it added.

Tamil Nadu reported its first Omicron case on December 15.