Tamil Nadu logs 1,591 new Covid-19 infections, 27 fatalities: Health dept

: Tamil Nadu reported less than 1,600 new COVID-19 cases for the second day, adding 1,591 fresh infections pushing the overall caseload to 26,37,010 till date, while 27 people succumbed to the virus taking the toll to 35,217, the Health department said on Tuesday.

The state has been witnessing an increasing trend with regard to new infections over the last few weeks and was adding over 1,600 daily infections. However, on Monday, the new infections fell to 1,580.

Meanwhile, recoveries marginally dipped when compared to the new cases with 1,537 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 25,85,244, leaving 16,549 active infections, a medical bulletin said.

A total of 1,52,296 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 4,45,27,080 till date.

As many as five districts comprised majority of new infections with the State capital leading with 212 cases, followed by Coimbatore (201), Erode (128), Thanjavur (119) and Chengalpet (116). Ramanathapuram recorded the least number of new infections with two.

Twenty six districts reported new cases in double digits, while there were no fresh deaths in 23 districts.

Of the 27 fatalities, 20 succumbed in government healthcare facilities while seven died in private facilities. Four of the deceased were without comorbidity or pre-existing illness which include a 37-year old man from Vellore. The individual who tested Covid-19 positive on September 11, died next day (September 12) at the Vellore Medical College Hospital, due to Covid-19 pneumonia, the bulletin said.

Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin inaugurated the Whole Genome Sequencing facility that has been set up at a cost of Rs 4 crore at the campus of the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services (DMS) here.

The inauguration of the new facility on Tuesday, follows the announcement made by the government in the assembly last month.

In a press release, the government said such a facility was not set up by any other government in the country and it would help identify the variants of Covid-19 virus sooner as against the earlier 'time consuming' exercise.

Under the existing practice, the release said, the test samples of a patient was sent to the Whole Genome facilities to Karnataka and Telangana and were consuming time to declare the results.

With the setting up of a similar facility in Tamil Nadu, it would be possible to identify the variants of Covid-19 much sooner, at the beginning stage itself and preventive measures can be taken to avoid the virus spread, the release said.