Nearly half of Tamil Nadu’s 11,000 fresh Covid cases from Chennai – Times of India

CHENNAI: Fresh Covid-19 cases in Tamil Nadu crossed the five-digit mark and reached 10,978 on Saturday, with Chennai reporting 5,098 cases – 46% of the state tally.
The new cases in the state have risen by nearly 22% pushing the active cases tally to 40,260, including 20,269 from Chennai. The 10 deaths on the day took the overall toll to 36,843 since March 2020. Despite a steep rise in new cases, the fatality rate – number of people dead over total number of people tested positive so far (27.8 lakh) – is stable around 1.3%.
Of the 10,978 cases, 10,932 patients were from within the state. Five people from Bangladesh (who travelled by road) and one each from Sri Lanka and UAE, who flew to TN, tested positive for the infection. There is also an increase in infection among those who travelled from other states.
One patient who came from Delhi by air and at least 38 others who travelled by road from different states tested positive. Tamil Nadu has 185 confirmed Omicron cases so far, of which 179 were isolated in hospitals or houses. All 179 patients have been discharged, the public health department said.
Chennai crosses 5,000 cases on Saturday
Fresh cases of Covid-19, fueled by the Omicron variant, pushed the active cases in the state by nearly four times in five days on Saturday, when Tamil Nadu added 10,978 cases to it registry. The state now has 40,260 patients in isolation compared to 10,364 on January 3.
At the infection epicentre Chennai, 5,098 new cases were reported. Nearly five times more people are under treatment for the viral infection (20,369) compared to 4,259 five days ago. Nevertheless, the overall percentage of people admitted to hospital patients from the active registry has dropped both in the state and city. O
n Saturday, 14% of the active patients (5,529) of them and 11% of active patients in the city (2,324) were in hospitals. “In absolute numbers this is higher than what we had three days ago. Experts have warned us that as numbers increase exponentially hospitals will be overcrowded,” said director of public health Dr TS Selvavinayagam.
The state, he said, has been encouraging most people – who have completed two doses of the vaccine, are healthy patients with no symptoms to remain in home isolation after consulting their doctors. They can come out of isolation if they do not have symptoms for three days. “We reserve hospital beds only for those with complications and severe disease,” he said.
On Saturday, all districts reported new cases and 34 out of 38 districts reported an increase in their daily tally compared to Friday. The sharpest increase was reported from Chennai, which reported 4,531 new cases on Friday, followed by Chengalpet and Coimbatore. After Chennai, Chengalpet (1,332) reported the highest number of cases followed by Tiruvallur (591) and Coimbatore (585). At least 15 districts reported cases in three digits and an equal number of districts reported cases below 50.
Of the 10 deaths in the state, Chennai reported six followed by two each in Chengalpet and Kancheepuram.