26 more Covid cases in TN, active cases stand at 177

CHENNAI: To enable early detection of infection and enforce containment measures, the director of public health recommended "purposeful testing" of Covid-19 cases instead of "targeted testing" of high-risk cases in the state. The state added 26 more people to the Covid registry on Saturday taking the tally of active cases to 177. After reporting one death a day on Thursday and Friday, Tamil Nadu reported no new deaths on Saturday.

Director of Public Health Dr T S Selvavinayagam has recommended testing all people with cough, fever, sore throat, breathlessness, and/or respiratory symptoms in the community. People above 60 years, individuals with comorbidities, lung or kidney disease, cancer, diabetes, and hypertension, and contacts of people who tested positive in a cluster must also be tested, he told.

Health minister Ma Subramanian said the state has conducted 43,432 screening camps in the last two weeks. "These camps have helped us keep the incidence of infectious low. The state has so far recorded 8,953 dengue cases this year, which is below the normal 10,000 cases," he said. On Friday, the state reported a marginal increase in Covid cases when test results of 40 patients were positive. "Nearly 50% of the cases were in Chennai. Most people recover in three days," he said. On Saturday there were 97 active cases of Covid in Chennai followed by 23 in Chengalpet. By the end of the day, 21 patients were discharged from the state registry.