Chennai Records Biggest Daily Increase With 509 Covid-19 Cases as Tamil Nadu Becomes Third Worst-hit State

Chennai has posted its biggest daily increase in Covid-19 cases so far as 509 new infections were reported on Sunday, reflecting the continuation of the recent trend of high number of new infections every day.

The case tally from the city accounted for 76 per cent of the 669 new cases in Tamil Nadu as the state’s total case count crossed the 7,000 mark, becoming the third state to breach the figure after Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Of the 669 who have been infected, 412 were men and 257 were women, officials said. Totally, 7,204 people have been infected in the state till date, the health bulletin said.

A 55-year-old and a 59-year old man, both admitted to government medical colleges in Chennai, and a 74-year old man, who was treated at nearby Chengelpet government hospital, succumbed to Covid-19, taking the state’s overall death toll to 47.

While 135 people were discharged following recovery from various hospitals in the State, the aggregate number of those who have overcome the illness caused by the virus stood at 1,959, the health department said.

The total number of cases in Chennai, which has emerged as one of the biggest hotspots in the country, touched 3,839. The capital accounts for more than half of the state's cases.

While many other districts across Tamil Nadu, even ones which saw an initial spike, have managed to reduce cases, Chennai firmly remains in the red zone. The rapid spike in cases in the city has largely been pushed by the Koyambedu market cluster.

The first signs of the market turning into a coronavirus cluster emerged in the last week of April, but it was only on May 4 that the market was shut. Until then, plenty of small shops in the cramped area continued to operate, with little adherence to social distancing.

Contact tracing has proved difficult too, with workers also beginning to move to other districts in the state. The cluster has contributed not just to cases in Chennai; the government revealed on Friday that 1589 cases in the entire state were linked to Koyambedu cluster.

The large number of cases has also been attributed to Tamil Nadu testing more samples than any other state, including Maharashtra. The southern state has tested 2,16,416 samples as of Saturday, a majority of them from Chennai.

While district-wise numbers haven't been made public, the Chennai Corporation on May 1 said they're testing 5225 people per million population.