Fresh Covid-19 infections continue to increase in Tamil Nadu as 492 people tested positive in the last 24 hours against 479 on Saturday, pushing the caseload to 35,76,814, said the Health Department.
There were no fresh fatalities and the death toll remained unchanged at 38,040, a bulletin said here.
Chennai recorded 109 new cases accounting for most of the infections followed by Coimbatore 50, Chengalpet 49 while the rest were spread across other districts.
As many as 431 people recuperated from the virus in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 35,33,848, leaving 4,926 active infections.
Nineteen districts reported new cases below 10 while Kallakurichi, Perambalur, Ramanathapuram and Tiruvarur recorded zero new cases each.
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The state capital leads among districts with 2,326 active cases and overall 7,89,168 coronavirus cases.
A total of 17,825 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of tests so far to 6,92,31,814, the bulletin said.
The Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian said antigens were required to be administered to pregnant women, newborn babies, and those up to 16 years of age.
To achieve this purpose, 11,333 centers have been set up across the State.
"Pregnant women, newborns, and those eligible will be covered during the exercise which will be conducted on Wednesdays. Even vaccinations against Covid-19 will be administered on those days," he told reporters.
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Subramanian said vaccinations against COVID-19 were announced for those aged between 12 and 14 and the first dose was administered to 92 percent of the people while the second dose was given to 72 percent.
Vaccinations to those aged between 15-17 have to be given to 33.46 lakh people eligible to receive the doses. Of them, to date, the first dose was administered to 91 percent of them and the second dose to 77 percent.
"Though vaccinations for 12-14-year-olds and 15-17-year-olds had breached 90 percent in the first dose, the second dose had covered only 77 percent (in both age groups). The health department has taken up an initiative in which officials will visit schools every Thursday and administer the second dose to those eligible students," he said.
The Health Department would hold the 38th mega vaccination exercise on September 25 which would be the last campaign to administer the jabs to eligible people he said.
The mega vaccination exercise began on September 12, 2021.
(Inputs from PTI)
