NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, AUG 27
Tamil Nadu on Thursday crossed four lakh COVID-19 cases while the death toll touched 6,948 with 109 more fatalities.
The addition of 5,981 new infections took the tally to 4,03,242 with the state capital accounting for 1,286 fresh cases, a health department bulletin said here.
The active cases were only 52,364 with 3,43,930 total recoveries, including 5,870 on Thursday, it said. Notably, from 3,02,815 cases on August 10, the state has added one lakh plus cases in a matter of about 16 days and in less than two months (from July 3 to till date) it has seen a whopping three lakh new infections.
It was on July 25, Tamil Nadu crossed the two lakh mark (2,06,737 cases including 6,988 reported on that day) and on July 3, the state surpassed one lakh cases. The add-up of relatively more cases also reflected an aggressive testing strategy with as many as 76,345 samples getting tested on Wednesday alone, the biggest number so far, and cumulatively 44,98,706 specimens have been examined.
Tamil Nadu follows only the RT-PCR tests and does not use alternatives like the Rapid Antigen Diagnostic Test and there are 146 COVID labs — 63 in government and 83 in private facilities.
Of the fresh fatalities, as many as 101 had comorbidities, the bulletin said. A man and woman, both 90-year old, a 28-year old woman, and three men aged between 30 and 37 were among the latest fatal victims to the pathogen.
