NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, DEC 12
Tamil Nadu recorded 1,218 new COVID-19 cases aggregating to 7,97,693 infections in the state, while 13 people succumbed to the virus pushing the death toll to 11,883, the Health Department said on Saturday.
As many as 1,296 people have been cured of the contagion totaling 7,75,602 so far, a bulletin said.
Active cases in Tamil Nadu stood at 10,208.
Two districts, including the state capital and Coimbatore logged new cases in triple digits with Chennai adding 345 new cases and Coimbatore registered 120 while remaining spread across other districts.
Chennai continued to top the list of cases with 2,19,526 infections out of more than 7.97 lakh in the state.
The metro also topped in the number of fatalities, accounting for 3,910 of the total 11,883 to date.
Seven districts have added new infections in single-digit, while 30 of them have reported ”zero” fatalities.
Ariyalur became the second district after Perambalur to record zero fresh cases.
Perambalur has been recording single-digit or zero fresh cases in the recent past.
A total of 72,122 samples were tested on Saturday taking the cumulative total to 1,28,87,037 specimens examined so far.
Tamil Nadu does not use Rapid Antigen Diagnostic Tests (RADT) and all tests are RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction based).
Of the 13 fatalities reported, six died in private hospitals while seven in government facilities.
A 30-year old man from Coimbatore was the only victim to succumb to the virus without ”any chronic illness” while 12 died due to comorbidities.
Five of those who tested positive were returnees from other states, the bulletin said.
Campaign on mandatory wearing of face masks to help reduce COVID-19 positivity launched in Chennai
A campaign to promote the mandatory wearing of face masks at places where people gather in large numbers, to help reduce COVID-19 positivity, was launched in the metro on Saturday by Tamil Nadu health secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan.
Accompanied by a team of officials, he visited Royapuram Shaik Maistry Street and distributed masks to residents and street vendors.
The civic authorities in all zones of Greater Chennai Corporation have been asked to advise residents to wear masks and help the administration reduce COVID-19 positivity, which at present stands at two per cent in Chennai. The awareness campaign targets mostly the nearly 880 low-income neighbourhoods.
