Chennai: As the first phase of 21-day lockdown drew to a close, 31 more people in Tamilnadu tested positive for corona on Tuesday, taking the tally to 1,204, even as the pandemic claimed 12 lives in the State so far.
Amid significant increase in numbers over the last few days that prompted Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to extend the lockdown till 30 April and Prime Minister Narendra Modi extending it by three more days till 3 May, this is by far the lowest number of positive cases reported on a single day
in Tamilnadu in the last 15 days, giving indications of the Covid curve flattening.
Talking to reporters, Health Secretary Dr Beela Rajesh said the number of positive cases in the state increased from 1,173 to 1,204 and the death toll stood at 12, following the death of a 96-year-old male corona positive patient from Dindigul at the Karur Government Medical College Hospital
this morning.
Of the 31 fresh cases, nine were reported from Dindigul, Chennai (5), Thanjavur (4), Tenkasi (3), Madurai, Ramnad and Nagapattinam (2 each) and Cuddalore, Salem, Sivaganga and Kanniyakumari (one each).
Chennai continued to remain on the top of the chart with 211 cases, followed by Coimbatore (126), Tiruppur (79), Dindigul (65), Erode (64), Tirunelveli (56), Chengelpat (46), Namakkal (45), Trichy (43), Karur and Madurai
(41 each) and Theni (40).
Of the 31 cases, 21 (15 men and six women) were from single source–linked to last month’s Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi. While one had a history of inter-state travel, nine tested positive through secondary source.
With this the number of positive cases linked to Delhi meet alone, including the participants and their contacts, went up to 1,079 so far.