Tamil Nadu on Wednesday logged 771 new COVID-19 infections, pushing the tally to 34,63,068 while the death toll remained unchanged at 38,026 with nil fatalities, the Health Department said.
As many as 459 people have recovered in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 34,20,364 leaving 4,678 active infections, a bulletin said.
Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian said the government would hold the mass vaccination exercise on July 10 through one lakh vaccination camps.
He said the department has been taking various measures to contain the virus spread as new cases were hovering above 700 in the State.
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Chennai accounted for the majority of new cases with 345 cases, followed by Chengalpet 126 while the remaining was spread across 29 of the 38 districts.
The State capital leads among districts with 2,224 active infections and overall 7,56,245 coronavirus cases.
A total of 20,380 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of tests so far to 6,69,44,420 the bulletin said.
Talking to reporters in Salem, Subramanian said the government plans to hold mass vaccination drive on July 10 by holding one lakh vaccination camps.
During the exercise, 1,342 vaccination centres would be set up on that day in the Salem district to administer the vaccines to the people, he told reporters.
He noted that the Health Department has administered the dose to 11.36 crore people.
About 39.06 lakh people were yet to receive the first dose and 1.12 crore the second dose, totalling 1.52 crore people who are eligible to receive the vaccines, he said.
“These eligible people will be targeted on that day to administer the vaccines,” he said.
On vaccinating people with booster doses, he said the Union Health Ministry has allowed people above the age of 60 years with comorbidity, be administered with booster doses at government hospitals ‘free of charge’.
“For those people aged between 18 and 59, steps are being taken to administer the booster dose in private healthcare facilities through the funds availed under the corporate social responsibility initiative from companies,” he said.
Referring to the increase in new coronavirus cases, he said people should adhere to the COVID-19 protocols by wearing facial mask, maintain social distance.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chennai/tamil-nadu-chennai-covid-news-coronavirus-cases-updates-deaths-7985385/
