COVID-19: Tamil Nadu breaches 5,000-mark; 2 dead

Two women succumbed to COVID-19 as Tamil Nadu reported 580 fresh cases, a large number of which are linked to the Koyambedu hotspot here, pushing the tally to 5,409 in the state.

Following the death of the two persons, the number of fatalities in the state climbed to 37. Of the 580 cases, 316 were from Chennai and the aggregate number of those infected in the state capital stood at 2,644 as on date, a health department bulletin said.

After seeing an all-time single day high of 771 additions on May 6, the number of cases today slid to 580 even asthe number of samples being tested is steadily on the riseand totally 14,195 samples were tested today alone, the highest so far in a day.

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Cuddalore and Ariyalur as on date have 356 and 246 cases respectively, while Chengelpet near here has 158. Krishnagiri, which till recently had no cases has eight infected people as of now. "A large number of today's (Thursday) cases are linked to Koyambedu market," the bulletin said addingthat totally, 3,822 are active cases and the tally till date is 5,409.

As many as 1,547 people have been discharged from various hospitals in the State following recovery today. A 56-year-old woman with co-morbid conditions from Tiruvallur and admitted to the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital succumbed to the illness on Wednesday and a 48-year- old woman treated at the Rajiv Gandhi Government hospital died of the contagion, it said.

In a span of about three days (between May 4 and 7), Tamil Nadu has added 1,859 new cases and a vast majority of them are contacts linked to the Koyambedu market here, which has emerged as a big source for the spread of the contagion.

On Monday, Tamil Nadu had 3,550 cumulative cases and today the aggregate number is 5,409. As seen in recent days, there were several children among the newly infected today also.