4 die of COVID-19 in TN; toll rises to 78; tally breaches

: Four people died of COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu on Sunday, while the number of cases crossed the 11,000 mark with 639 testing positive, the health department said.

Those who died included two men and two women.

With this, the death toll in the state has risen to 78, the department said in its bulletin.

A total of 634 people were discharged on Sunday, taking the total to 4,172 till date, it said.

After a marginal dip in the number of fresh cases below the 500 mark for the past two days, the state recorded 639 new cases on Sunday, which included people who had arrived from other states.

Twenty six of these were children aged below 10 years.

Of the 78 deaths reported in Tamil Nadu, 53 were from Chennai, the bulletin said.

Chennai also continued to constitute the majority of positive cases at 480, taking the total cases till date to 6,750.

With the latest cases, the cumulative tally in the state has breached the 11,000 mark to touch 11,224.

Eighty one of the 639 new cases included people who had arrived from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the bulletin said.

Out of the 639 cases, 398 were men and the remaining, women.

The total number of active cases, including those in isolation, stood at 6,971, it said.

A total of 12,445 people were tested at 61 centres in Tamil Nadu on Sunday,taking the aggregrate so far to 3,11,621.

It said Chennai reported 480 new cases on Sunday, while neighbouring Thiruvallur and Chengalput districts had 18 and 28 cases respectively.

Districts which recorded a high rise due to influx of people from other states on Sunday included Kallakurichi, Karur, Salem, Virudhunagar and Tuticorin, the bulletin said.

Kallakurichi district recorded 17 new cases, including 14 returnees from Maharashtra, while Karur reported 16, again of those who had returned from that state.

Salem and Virudhunagar reported a total of 13 positive ases, mainly those who had arrived fromTelangana, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, the bulletin said.

Tuticorin district Sunday saw 12 returnees from Maharashtra testing positive.