Tamil Nadu records 1,009 new COVID-19 cases, 10 deaths

Tamil Nadu added 1,009 fresh infections to its coronavirus tally on Sunday, taking the total count to 8.14 lakh while 10 more fatalities pushed the toll to 12,069, the health department said.

Daily recoveries continued to outnumber the new cases with 1,091 people getting cured, taking the aggregate to 7,93,154, a bulletin said.

The number of active cases stood at 8,947.

A total of 64,283 samples were tested on Sunday, taking the cumulative to 1.39 crore specimens examined so far.

According to the bulletin, three more returnees from the United Kingdom tested positive for the virus, raising the total number of such cases to 13.

Five were from Chennai, three from Thanjavur and two from Nilgiris, One each from Theni, Madurai and Chengalpet,it said.

All the UK returnee patients have been kept in separate isolation wards.

The state capital logged 290 new coronavirus cases, while the rest were scattered across other districts.

Chennai continued to top the list of cases in the state with 2.24 lakh infections.

Fifteen districts added new cases in single digits, while 31 districts reported zero fatalities.

Addressing reporters, State Health Minister C Vijayabaskar said 120 special beds have been set up at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here to treat returnees from the UK.

"As many as 120 special beds have been set up at the hospital to treat patients of COVID-19 new strain imported from the United Kingdom. Till date 13 returnees from the United Kingdom have tested positive and they were under constant monitoring by a team of doctors", he said.

The Minister said the swab samples of the returnees have been sent to National Institute of Virology in Pune and the results were expected shortly.

Recently, Health secretary J Radhakrishnan had said the swab samples of UKreturnees have been sent to NIV for genomic analysis to ascertain whether they were infected with old or the new strain that has caused many scares across the globe.

Vijayabaskar said "we are treating the patients (UK returnees) and they are all well now." Appealing to the public "not to panic", the Minister said the government has taken enough steps to control the spread of the virusand added that peopleshould extend their cooperation by wearing masks and by maintaining social distancing.

To a query, he said once the COVID-19 vaccine was ready it would be provided to the people free of charge as announced earlier by Chief Minister K Palaniswami.

In October, Palaniswami had promised free immunisation against coronavirus for all sections of the people in the state as soon as the vaccine was made available.