Tamil Nadu's coronavirus tally crosses 25,000-mark; Chennai records 1,000 fresh cases

This metropolis recorded its biggest-ever single-day spike on Wednesday with 1,012 persons testing positive for coronavirus even as Tamil Nadu’s tally went beyond the 25,000-mark.

And for the first time in a month, the number of samples tested also went beyond the 14,000-mark with the government appearing to heed to calls from experts to ramp up its testing numbers.

The state’s tally now stands at 25,872 positive patients with 14,316 discharges and 208 deaths -- 11 of which were reported on Wednesday alone. While eight of the deceased belonged to Chennai, one each was from Tiruchirapalli, Kanchipuram, and Chengalpattu.

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The increasing number of deaths and positive cases are major concerns for the state which is trying to hide behind numbers – the government says the mortality rate is less than 1 percent, one of the lowest in the country, and attributes the increase in cases to “high testing numbers.”

A daily Covid-19 bulletin issued by the Health Department said all 11 deaths reported on Wednesday were due to “co-morbidities.” The government had last week, quoting a study, claimed that 84 percent of the COVID-19 deaths are due to co-morbidities while only the remaining 16 percent can be classified as “exclusive COVID-19” deaths.

The bulletin said 14,101 samples were tested on Wednesday, the highest number in over a month and the increase comes amid widespread calls from experts to ramp up testing, especially in Chennai.

Chennai, which has a total of 17,598 cases, is grappling with “wide-spread community transmission” even as the government outright denies that the virus is out in the open.

While the rest of the state is slowly limping back to normalcy with easing of restrictions, Chennai and its neighbouring districts of Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur, and Chengalpattu are struggling to contain further spread of the virus. Of the total 25,872 cases, 20,508 are from the aforementioned four districts and 1,724 are those who returned from other states and abroad.

The government and the city administration have been trying various methods, including sensitizing the local community, to prevent further spread of the virus, but in vain. The city administration is also under attack for not increasing its daily testing numbers which are below 4,000.