Tamil Nadu on Saturday reported a slight increase in new Covid-19 cases with 479 people testing positive, pushing the overall caseload to 35,76,322, the health department said.
The death toll in the state remained unchanged at 38,040 with nil fatalities for the day.
The state had reported 463 new cases on Friday while the daily figures stood at 447 infections on Thursday.
Recoveries were less compared to new infections with 434 people getting recuperated from the virus in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 35,33,417 leaving 4,865 active infections, a medical bulletin said.
Chennai registered more than 100 cases for the third day in a row with 105 fresh infections, Coimbatore added 57 while the remaining cases were spread across other districts.
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Chennai had added 102 cases on Thursday and 103 on Friday. As many as 23 districts reported new cases below 10.
The state capital also leads among districts with 2,305 active infections and overall 7,89,056 coronavirus cases.
A total of 18,907 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of tests so far to 6,92,13,989, the bulletin said.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said there was no shortage of essential medicines at the pharmacies and added that 327 essential medicines have been procured and being sent to respective district medicinal storage facilities.
Refuting media reports about shortage of medicines, Subramanian, after inspecting the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation Ltd, told reporters that false news was being spread that there were shortage of medicines at medical shops.
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"Adequate audits have been taken up in primary health centres, district headquarters hospitals and medical college hospitals. Based on Chief Minister M K Stalin's directive, as much as 327 essential medicines that will be in stock for three months are being sent to district medical storage facilities," he said.
"Five more medicinal storage facilities are being set up in five districts as announced in the budget presented this year. About three months ago, there were shortage of medicines due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and fuel price increase. But it has been rectified now," he said.
He said a call centre facility -- 104 -- has been set up to receive complaints of shortage of medicines.
Subramanian also clarified that through the state government's 'Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam' scheme, essential medicines are being supplied to beneficiaries without any shortage.
On the status of H1N1 virus cases, the minister said 965 children have been affected by it in the state and from January till date, 10 deaths have been reported.
"We have issued adequate instructions to parents of those children affected by it. If any child shows symptoms of such disease, the parents have been asked not to send their wards to schools, isolate the kids and consult a doctor immediately," he said.
Similarly, instructions have been issued that if any school teacher finds any symptoms of the disease among their students, the teachers should inform their parents immediately, he said.
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(Inputs from PTI)
