IIT Madras Covid cluster rises to 145, Tamil Nadu registers 77 new cases – Times of India

CHENNAI: The Covid-19 cluster tally on the IIT-M campus rose to 145 on Wednesday with 33 more people testing positive. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu reported 77 new cases and discharged 34 patients. By the end of the day, there were 447 active cases across the state.
Chennai (59) continued to report the maximum number of new cases followed by Chengalpet (7), Tiruvallur (3) and Coimbatore (2). Five other districts – Dindigul, Kancheepuram, Tuticorin, Vellore and Virudhunagar – reported one new case each. Twenty-nine of the 38 districts reported no new cases.
Nearly 95% of Covid-19 beds in the state were vacant. On Wednesday, 19 Covid-19 patients were admitted to hospitals across the state. Of these eight patients were on oxygen beds and four patients – one each in Vellore, Cuddalore, Kanyakumari and Chengalpet — were in the intensive care units.
Of the 447 active cases, 298 were in Chennai. The adjoining districts of Chengalpet (48), Tiruvallur (13) and Kancheepuram (12) together added 73 active cases. There were 11 active cases in Coimbatore. While 22 districts had between one and six active cases, ten districts were Covid free.
“The cumulative test positivity rate at IIT is around 2.9%. We will continue to screen all students and staff on campus,” said health secretary J Radhakrishnan. So far 4,974 people on campus have been tested. Health workers will continue to draw samples of all residents and staff, officials said.
Doctors at IIT-M said the health of all patients was stable. “Most students have been isolated in hostels and quarters on campus. They have mild symptoms such as fever, cough and cold,” a doctor attending to them said.
Although the number of cases on campus is on the rise, the infection has been contained on campus, said director of public health Dr T S Selvavinayagam. “We have not seen an increase in cases or positivity rate outside IIT,” he said.
Meanwhile, the genome sequencing lab at the Directorate of Public Health found that all initial 25 samples drawn from IIT-M were BA2 (omicron) variants.
“It was the dominant variant in the community even in March. We saw no new sub variants,” Selvavinayagam told reporters.