Inching towards a grim over 100 cases per day mark, Tamil Nadu on Tuesday logged 98 new COVID-19 infections, including two returnees from the United States and Kerala respectively, pushing the tally to 34,55,474, the Health department said.
The number of people who have recuperated from the viral disease rose to 34,16,907 with 49 more people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, leaving 542 active COVID-19 cases.
Chengalpet and Chennai districts accounted for a majority of cases with 46 and 44 respectively. Coimbatore and Tiruvallur added four while Kancheepuram, Vellore added one case each. The death toll in the state stood at 38,025 as no fatality was recorded in the last 24 hours, it said.
Among those who tested COVID-19 positive in the last 24 hours include 56 men and 42 women. The state capital leads among districts with 268 active infections and overall 7,52,533 coronavirus cases.
A total of 12,356 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of tests so far to 6,66,26,326, the health bulletin said. Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian inspected the Vellore Institute of Technology, Kilambakkam were a cluster of COVID-19 cases was reported recently.
According to an official press release, 44 students have tested positive in the last 24 hours at the campus, taking the tally to 118. The students are under isolation and are being monitored by a team of health officers, the release said. Those who came into contact of the students have also been identified.
The Minister has directed the officials at the institute to strictly follow COVID-19 norms laid out by the department. "Standard cluster control measures have been put in place. Testing of remaining students is ongoing", it said.
According to the Health department, COVID-19 clusters were recently detected at the campuses of Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and also at a private healthcare facility near the city.
Meanwhile, a press release from the Health department said May 31 was observed as 'World Anti-Tobacco Day' and a sum of Rs 4.76 crore has been collected as fine from 2.56 lakh people for smoking in public places.
Referring to the District Tobacco Control programme launched by the government, the release said 20 districts were covered under the scheme and plans are afoot to set up similar facilities in districts like Chengalpet, Nilgiris, Mayiladuthurai, Ramanathapuram, Ranipet, Sivaganga, Thanjavur, Theni, Tenkasi and Tiruppur in 2022-23.
-With PTI Input
