Tamil Nadu COVID-19 tally zooms past 60,000-mark; CM K Palaniswami tests negative

Tamil Nadu’s COVID-19 tally zoomed past the 60,000-mark on Monday with 2,710 people, including 1,487 from this metropolis, testing positive for the novel Coronavirus.

With the high prevalence of the virus is no longer confined to the state capital of Chennai, the southern city of Madurai, which has been reporting a sizeable number of positive cases, will also go under a seven-day lockdown from June 24.

The state’s tally stood at 62,087, including 34,112 discharges— 1,358 of them left the hospitals in the last 24 hours alone— and 794 deaths, 37 of which were reported on Monday.

Chennai is still the biggest hotspot with a total of 42,752 cases, but the virus is spreading across the state’s length and breadth quite fast with the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 outside the capital city is growing each passing day.

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As many as 1,223 people who tested positive belonged to other districts of the state. Madurai, the temple city, reported 157 fresh cases on Monday, while Tiruchirapalli in the central part of the state also recorded 51 fresh cases, and Thoothukudi (62).

Northern districts that are either geographically close to Chennai or that had received a huge influx of people from the state capital continued to report a greater number of cases.

While Chengalpattu reported 126 fresh cases, Kancheepuram (56), Tiruvallur (120), Tiruvannamalai (139), Ranipet (52), Villupuram (41), and Vellore (13).

Most of these districts except Tiruvallur, Kanchipuram, and Chengalpattu that share borders with Chennai had brought the spread of the Coronavirus under control.

However, the huge exodus from Chennai due to a high prevalence of the virus in the city and the 12-day ‘strict’ lockdown might have led to people from these district testing positive, experts feel.

Though the testing numbers reached the 31,000-mark on Sunday, it came down to 26,592 on Monday. The state had ramped up its testing numbers last week.

While Madurai will go for a lockdown from June 24, a few other districts were also mulling to shutdown till June 30 to prevent the spread of the virus.

Briefing reporters through video conferencing, Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar said the state has created a record by testing 9,19,204 samples so far, the highest in the country.

He also said Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami underwent a COVID-19 test and has tested negative. The Chief Minister took a test after people working in his office had tested positive for the virus.