105 new COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu; Chennai continues to be on top

After a lull, Tamil Nadu reported another massive spike in the number of positive Covid-19 patients with swab samples of 105 persons rendering positive on Sunday alone. As many as 50 persons tested positive for Coronavirus in Chennai alone, in a major cause of worry for this metropolis that now has 285 confirmed Covid-19 patients.

In another concern for the state, three doctors – all working at the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital (RGGH) here – have tested positive for Covid-19 even as the Tamil Nadu government maintains it has provided enough PPEs, masks, and gloves to frontline health care professionals and workers.

Follow live updates on coronavirus

There have been complaints from doctors working in government hospitals that they have not received PPEs and other medical gear needed to protect them from infection. For the second time in a week, Health Secretary Dr Beela Rajesh refrained from holding the regular press briefing on Sunday during which she hands out the day’s statistics on Covid-19 to the media.

Out of the 50 people tested positive in Chennai on Sunday, only 10 are primary patients and the remaining 40 are contacts. With this, Chennai has the maximum number of Covid-19 patients in the state at 285, making it the major hotspot of the disease in Tamil Nadu.

A 10-year-old student and just born baby are among the 105 persons who tested positive on Sunday in the state. The only consolation is that no death was reported in the past three days and 46 patients left home from hospitals on Sunday after recovering.

The state had reported less than 40 cases for three days last week prompting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to claim that the state would see “zero” cases in the next three to four days on Thursday -- a statement that came under attack from various quarters. However, the state has been witnessing a spike in cases since then – 49 on Friday, Saturday (57) and Sunday (105).

This is the first time after a week that the state reported more than 100 cases in a day. Sunday’s tally takes the total number of cases in the state to 1,477, including 411 discharges and 15 deaths. The health bulletin said two deaths have been cross-notified to other states, while one patient died after turning negative for infection.

The state currently has 21,381 passengers under home quarantine for 28 days and 20 asymptomatic passengers from highly affected countries are being quarantined in quarantine facilities near airport and 1,987 are under hospital isolation.

“Till now 40,876 samples have been taken from the passengers. 1,477 persons are tested positive to date, while 2,411 samples are under process. 5,135 samples are repeat samples of the same persons,” an update from the Health Department said.