NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, JULY 24
Tamil Nadu on Saturday recorded 1,819 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 25,46,689, while 27 fatalities took the toll to 33,889.
Recoveries continued to outnumber new infections with 2,583 people getting discharged, aggregating to 24,88,775 till date, leaving 24,025 active cases. Among those infected were two people who returned from Andhra Pradesh and one from West Bengal, a health department bulletin said.
Coimbatore district recorded the maximum of 175 cases, followed by Erode with 132, Chennai 127 and Salem 107. The least number of infections was reported from Perambalur district (seven). Nearly 32 districts saw new infections in double digits. The state capital reported a single death on Saturday, taking the COVID-19 related fatalities so far to 8,306.
With 1,604 active cases, Chennai’s total has mounted to 5,37,013, while total recoveries stand at 5,27,102.
Meanwhile, minister for medical and family welfare Ma Subramanian said a total of 9.23 lakh children would benefit from the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine drive for infants under the Universal Immunisation Programme.
“Children will be administered three doses when they are one-and-a-half months old, three-and-a-half months old and nine months old, he told reporters after the rollout of the drive at the Government Children’s Hospital here.
He said the state received 70,000 doses of COVID vacine from the Centre and exuded the hope that additional doses would be received to cover all the beneficiaries. Later, he enquired about the health condition of a five- year-old girl undergoing treatment for consuming bleaching powder, mistaking it for food.
“She was in a bad shape when brought to the hospital here four months ago and had lost considerable weight as she could not ingest food. Doctors have said she is on the road to recovery. Now she has gained two kg from six kg before,” he said.
Considering her parents poverty and learning that they were sleeping on the corridors of the General Hospital, he had asked them to stay at his room in the MLA’s quarters till she recovered. The minister also said he had instructed the officials concerned to stock the room with enough food for the parents.
