Chennai: COVID-19 cases spike across state; capital city worst hit – Times Now

Chennai: It was six months ago when the state of Tamil Nadu recorded its first coronavirus case. Today, the state has the third-highest COVID-19 cases in the country clocking at 4,69, 256.  

The state has also recorded the second highest death toll at 7,925.

According to a report in Times of India, the state has registered 5,776 new cases and 89 deaths till Monday. However, the matter of relief is that the active cases in the state are lower than Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. 

Only Maharashtra with 9.1 lakh and Andhra Pradesh with 50.6 lakh have more cases than Tamil Nadu on September 7.

The first COVID death in Tamil Nadu was recorded on March 25 when a businessman succumbed in Madurai. Till Monday, Maharashtra recorded 26,604 deaths. 

“Cases increase at different times and places. Pandemic is not a math,” the report quoted Dr TS Selvavinaayagam, Director of Public Health, as saying. 

With the rise in cases, the state improved its health infrastructure. 161 RT-PCR labs were approved in the state comprising 64 in the government sector. 

“We have been able to screen and test the patients across Tamil Nadu with the state conducting nearly 52 lakh tests. Of these, 30.73 lakh were patients and 22.24 were contacts,” said J Radhakrishnan, the Health Secretary. 

The state government augmented bed capacity to more than 27,000 and an equal number of non-oxygen beds as well. 

“We have equally distributed infrastructure and human resources. The treatment and the test are free of cost in all government hospitals. And that the reason we have been able to increase the recovery rate to 87 per cent,” added Radhakrishnan.

Meanwhile, the state capital Chennai is recording 5,800 cases a day.