Tamil Nadu logs 29,272 new cases, 298 deaths; CM urges public to donate

: Tamil Nadu on Tuesday recorded

29,272 fresh COVID-19 cases in the single biggest day spike so far, pushing the caseload to 14,38,509 while 298 deaths in the last 24 hours took the toll to 16,178.

According to a medical bulletin, 19,182 people were discharged today, taking the tally to 12,60,150, leaving 1,62,181 active infections.

With an increase in new infections, Chief Minister M K Stalin appealed to the general public and industries to donate to the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund to fight against the raging pandemic.

The state capital accounted for 7,466 new infections, totaling 4,04,733 till date.

The metropolis also leads in the number of fatalities with 5,368 deaths.

The number of samples tested in the last 24 hours was at 1,56,111, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined so far to 2,43,10,931.

Besides Chennai, Chengalpet added 2,419 cases, Coimbatore 2,650, Thiruvallur 1,204 and Madurai 1,024, while the remaining 31 districts clocked new infections in triple digits.

Among the 298 deceased, 78 were without comorbidities which include a 25-year old man from Coimbatore who succumbed to the virus due to 'cardio respiratory arrest'.

As many as 25 people who tested positive Tuesday were returnees from other destinations.

Meanwhile, in an official release, Stalin appealed to the general public and industries to donate generously to the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund towards strengthening the health infrastructure with COVID-19 pandemic being virulent in the State.

In a statement, he assured the funds received would be used only for stepping up medical infrastructure like ramping up production of medical oxygen production and storage facilities, purchasing of RT-PCR kits, life saving devices among others.

"The funds collected will be used only to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and the details related to the expenses made (through the funds generated) would be available on a public domain ensuring transparency," he said.

The funds received would be 100 per cent tax exempted, he added.

Earlier in the day, the chief minister inaugurated a SIDDHA Covid-19 Care facility at the A M Jain College in Meenambakkam in the city under the health department's plan to set up 14 such facilities across the State.

The first Siddha Covid-19 Care Centre was recently inaugurated by medical minister Ma Subramanian at Vyasarpadi.

The facilities would offer traditional SIDDHA food and herbal medicines to the COVID-19 patients who are under treatment.