Chennai: Vellore district witnessed its first Covid-19 casualty late on Tuesday with a 45-year-old man passing away, a week after being admitted. to Christian Medical College hospital.
Officials said the deceased’s test showed positive for Covid-19 only on Tuesday evening. He passed away around 8 pm, they said. This has taken the number of cases in TN to 691 and deaths to eight.
Earlier in the day, Tamilnadu reported another death due to COVID-19. A 64-year-old woman, who had no travel history but came from one of the high-risk areas, died at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital even as the State’s tally of cases surged to 690 with 69 additions.
Speaking to reporters, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh said, “The patient from Chennai was in the hospital for 1.5 hours. The woman had co-morbid conditions of diabetes and hypertension. She did not have a travel history but had a contact history. She was from one of the high-risk areas and we are in the process of identifying her contact.”
Beela Rajesh said of the 69 fresh cases on Tuesday, 63 tested positive through single contact having links to last month’s Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi. With this the number of positive cases linked to the Delhi meet rose to 633.
Tamilnadu, with 690 cases, is second on India’s Covid-19 chart behind Maharashtra, where it was inching towards the 750-mark.