NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, OCT 10
Tamil Nadu on Saturday recorded 5,242 new COVID-19 cases and 67 fatalities taking the infection count to 6,51,370 and death toll to 10,187.
Recoveries nearing the six-lakh-mark with 5,222 people walking out of various healthcare institutions, taking the cumulative recoveries to 5,97,033 till date, a health department bulletin said.
Active cases, including those in isolation, stood at 44,150. With focus on stepping up testing of the samples by the government, 91,191 samples were examined today aggregating 82,32,725 so far.
Tamil Nadu does not use Rapid Antigen Diagnostic Tests (RADT) and all tests are RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction based).
Among districts, the state capital Chennai logged 1,272 cases followed by Coimbatore 392, Salem 339, Chengalpat 309. Cuddalore, Kancheepuram, Namakkal, Thanjavur, Thiruvannamalai, Tiruppur and Villupuram clocked over 100 cases each, the bulletin said.
Chennai accounts for 1,80,751 in the total number of positive cases to the overall 6,51,370 in the state till date. Of the 67 fatalities reported today, two patients were without co-morbidities – a 25-year-old woman from Thiruvarur succumbing to the virus due to acute respiratory distress syndrome and the other was a 62-year-old man from Ranipet due to COVID-19 pneumonia.
Chennai leads in the number of fatalities accounting for 3,396 to the overall tally of 10,187 in the state. The bulletin said a private lab received approval to conduct COVID-19 tests, pushing the total number of private facilities to 125 while the government-owned was 66, totalling 191 testing centres. Eight of those who tested positive were returnees from other destinations, including one from the United Arab Emirates, the bulletin said.
