Though the coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu registered an increase on Monday and took the total number of persons tested positive in the State till date to 11,760, there was a sense of relief on the face of Dr C Vijaya Baskar , Minister of Health who briefed the media late evening.
“We have tested 11,760 coronavirus positive cases in the State till Monday. Today 536 persons were tested positive across the State. Out of this, 46 persons were those who returned to the State from Maharashtra. Chennai alone tested 364 coronavirus cases which took the total number of cases in the capital city to 7,270,” said the Minister. He said the death toll was 81 with three more persons succumbing to the pandemic till Monday evening.
Dr Baskar said that 3,37, 841 samples have been tested and 61 laboratories are functioning on a round-the-clock-basis in the State.
“This is the highest number of samples tested anywhere in the country and we have the largest number of labs,” said the Minister.
The day also saw the discharge of 234 persons from various hospitals in the State making the total number of discharges in the State 4,406. “This means that there are 7,270 active coronavirus cases under treatment in the State. Our mortality rate is the lowest in the country and these factors are encouraging,” said Dr Baskar.
He also said that the last ten days saw an average of 12,536 samples being tested in the State. “This is also the highest number in the country which further proves that the State is tackling the situation effectively,” he said.
Dr J Radhakrishnan, veteran IAS officer, who is in charge of entire Chennai region as the special officer for tackling Covid-19 pandemic said that aggressive testing was on in Greater Chennai. “We have tested almost one per cent of the population in the metropolis which is an achievement.
The spike in the number of cases is due to the massive testing undertaken by my team of health professionals and revenue officials who are helping them,” Dr Radhakrishnan told The Pioneer. He said he was confident of bringing down the numbers to naught in coming days.