NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, OCT 15
Tamil Nadu logged fresh COVID-19 cases below the 5,000 mark for the fourth straight day on Thursday as the tally rose to 6,74, 802 and 49 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 10,472.
Of the 4,410 fresh infections, Chennai reported 1,148, Coimbatore 395, Salem 263 and Chengelpet 255. The state capital accounted for 1,86,667 of the 6.74 lakh plus cumulative positive cases, a health department bulletin said.
After a gap of nearly three months, the state saw its fresh COVID-19 cases drop below the 5,000 mark on October 12. Former MLA and TTV Dhinakaran led Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam treasurer P Vetrivel, who was treated for COVID-19 died here on Thursday. Under intensive care for COVID treatment, he died due to septicemia, Sri Ramachandra Hospital said in a statement. The former legislator, admitted on Oct 6 was shifted later to ICU and had been on ventilator, the hospital said.
Two men aged 33 and 90 besides a 37-year old woman were among those who succumbed on Thursday and in all 47 had co- morbidities and two no chronic illnesses.
The recoveries continued to outnumber fresh cases and with 5,055 patients getting discharged from various hospitals, a total of 6,22,458 people have got cured and correspondingly the active cases dipped to 41,872. Barring two days, the state has been posting more recoveries than fresh cases since Oct 4. Active cases were 39,856 as on July 1 and surged thereafter, crossing the 46,000 mark during the first week of that month.
After dropping to 43,747 on Oct 12, the active cases decreased further to 43,239 the next day and on Wednesday it slid to 42,566. As many as 90,752 samples were tested and 86,74,793 specimens have so far been examined in 192 COVID labs across the state. In 2015, Vetrivel, then an AIADMK MLA representing the Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency in the city, had resigned his assembly membership to facilitate late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa”s contest from that segment. Jayalalithaa, who had won from Srirangam, was disqualified after she was convicted in a disproportionate assets case in 2014.
Following appeal, the Karnataka High Court set aside the trial court order convicting her and she became the Chief Minister again in 2015 and won from RK Nagar seat in a bypoll. Vetrivel was among the 18 MLAs who were disqualified in 2017 for siding with Dhinakaran. AMMK general secretary Dhinakaran condoled the death of Vetrivel.
