8 die, 4 Vande Bharat Mission returnees test positive in TN

Eight people with co-morbid conditions died of COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu and as many as 716 fresh coronavirus cases were reported, pushing the tally to 8,718 in the state, authorities said on Tuesday.

Days after the Centre's 'Vande Bharat Mission' kicked in bringing stranded Indians from abroad, four among those who returned tested positive.

"Four passengers who returned from other countries reported positive today," a health department bulletin said and added that they have been housed in a quarantine facility here.

The country of their origin was, however, not known immediately.

Among the returnees to Tamil Nadu were 180 people from Malaysia today and 171 from Kuwait on Sunday.

Tonight 183 more people are expected to arrive from Muscat.

The returnees have been accommodated here in hotels and the premises of an educational institution after screening.

Totally, 927 people arrived here and at Tiruchirappalli airports between May 9 and today and all of them were screened.

While samples of 186 were under testing process, as many as 737 tested negative and four were positive.

When two people who returned from Abu Dhabi and Dubai tested positive in Kerala on Saturday, hours after the State declared that it has flattened the coronavirus curve, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said the new cases were "a warning to those coming back from abroad and for other states to be on the alert".

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, acute respiratory distress syndrome and diabetes mellitus were among the co- morbidities the four men and four women who died had, the bulletin said.

A total of 716 people tested positive, of whom 427 were men and 288 women and the aggregate number of cases stood at 8,718 in Tamil Nadu.

All the four men who died were aged between 63 and 75 years of age, while the women who succumbed to COVID-19 were aged between 43 and 58 years.

They died between Sunday and today in government medical college hospitals here.

Chennai accounted for 510 of the 700 plus new cases on Tuesday and 4,882 have so far been infected in the State capital alone.

Of this number, 749 were discharged, 39 died and 4,093 are active cases.

Till date 2,134 people have been discharged and on Tuesday alone 83 people were sent home after they recovered from the illness, the bulletin said.

As many as 6,520 were the active caes.