Tamil Nadu reports 118 COVID-19 deaths; 5,958 new cases

Tamil Nadu on Wednesday saw 5,958 fresh coronavirus cases that pushed the tally close to the four lakh mark while 118 deaths took the toll to 6,839.

Recoveries were 5,606 as the cumulative number of people cured rose to 3,38,060, a health department bulletin said. While the total infection count reached 3,97,261, active cases stood at 52,362, it said. The state tested 75,500 samples as the total specimens examined so far rose to 44,22,361.

Meanwhile, the government said it has introduced a new SMS facility at the testing centre in the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here for sending COVID-19 test results on mobile phones of patients or relatives within 24 hours.

The state capital, which has been seeing a slight increase in the cases in recent days, accounted for 1,290 new COVID-19 infections. Among the fresh deaths, as many as 107 were due to comorbidities, the bulletin said, adding a 26-year old man from Villupuram died due to obesity-respiratory failure.

A 35-year old woman, suffering from diabetes mellitus, died of COVID-19 pneumonia, minutes after being admitted to the district government hospital in Cuddalore with complaints of fever for three days and difficulty in breathing for one day, it said.

Of the fresh infections reported on Wednesday, the neighbouring districts of Kancheepuram (329), Tiruvallur (280) and Chengalpet (294), where the city's suburbs are located, collectively reported 903 cases.

Coimbatore and Salem in western Tamil Nadu saw a sharp increase with 484 and 451 cases respectively. Villupuram, Vellore, Tirunelveli, Thiruvarur, Tuticorin, Theni, Thanjavur, Ranipet, Pudukottai, Kanyakumari and Erode each recorded more than 100 cases, the bulletin said.

Meanwhile, the government said it has introduced a new SMS facility at the testing centre in the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital for receiving COVID-19 test results within 24 hours.

On the SMS facility, state Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar said so far people, who undergo RT-PCR testing, had to visit the testing facility to collect the result.

The immediate availability of test results would also avoid mental agony of a long wait for patients, he said adding this facility would be expanded to other testing centres in a phased manner.

According to the health department, four more labs received approvals on Wednesday for conducting COVID-19 tests, taking the tally in the state to 145 -- 63 government and 82 private.

(Photo Credit: PTI)