NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, AUG 13
As many as 5,835 new coronavirus cases and 119 deaths were reported in Tamil Nadu on Thursday, taking the tally to 3,20,355 and the toll to 5,397, a bulletin from the health department said.
As many as 40 police personnel who recovered from COVID- 19, meanwhile, donated plasma following an appeal from Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to the people to help others by giving the blood component which has antibodies to the virus.
TNPolice,under the guidance of Hon’ble CM has come forward for #plasmadonation.A noble gesture by #chennaicitypolice, 40 #frontline police personnel who recovered from #COVID19 donated plasma today at the #plasmabank in @gmcrgggh. pic.twitter.com/nyMOwSe6Wa
— Dr C Vijayabaskar – Say No To Drugs & DMK (@Vijayabaskarofl) August 13, 2020
Keeping up with the trend in the past several days, Chennai recorded 989 cases and the rest was scattered across the state. The state capital’s share in the cumulative case count was 1,13,058, a COVID bulletin from the health department said.
Those who succumbed to the virus included a 14-year old boy with seizure disorder and two men aged 28 and 29. In all, 112 had comorbidities as the state continued to record deaths in three digits for the past several days.
The state’s death toll includes 2,384 people from the city. As many as 67,275 samples were put to the RT-PCR test and 34,99,300 is the aggregate number of specimens examined so far, the bulletin said.
5,146 patients got discharged from various hospitals and 2,61,459 people have recovered till date while the active cases stood at 53,499. Police said after medical screening, as many as 38 from the Armed Reserve and two women personnel donated plasma in the presence of Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan and Police Commissioner Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal.
“The Chief Minister appreciated the gesture of police personnel, who are doing duty at the forefront of war against coronavirus and have also come forward to donate plasma for treating the COVID-19 patients,” a city police release said.
While 1,920 personnel, including officers, of the Greater Chennai Police contracted the virus, 1,549 of them have recovered and rejoined duty, it said.
A plasma bank was inaugurated last month at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here at a cost of over Rs two crore. According to officials, at least 18 COVID-19 patients have so far recovered through plasma therapy, approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research, at the RGGGH here.
