The number of fresh COVID-19 infections dropped to nine in Tamil Nadu on Thursday.
“After three waves of the pandemic, the State’s daily count reached a single digit,” Health Minister Ma. Subramanian said. Registering its first case of COVID-19 in early March 2020, the State has so far reported 35,94,239 COVID-19 cases.
The Minister, while speaking at “DPHICON 2022”, pointed out that it was on March 7, 2020 that the first patient with COVID-19 was identified in the State, marking the beginning of the first wave of the pandemic. After nearly 10 months, February 20, 2021 marked the lowest daily count of 438 in the first wave.
He said that when the second wave of infections started, there was a huge rise in cases – 25,000 to 30,000 a day. The wave’s lowest case count was on December 24, 2021 – 597.
“Now, we are at the end of the third wave. Today, we have a single digit caseload of nine. We have reached a single digit after three waves,” he said. He stressed on the importance of wearing masks.
Only five districts reported fresh cases in the State, while a returnee from the USA also tested positive. Of this, there were three cases in Chennai and two in Chengalpattu. A total of 17 persons were discharged, while there were 84 persons under treatment in the State.
Due to administrative reasons, two private laboratories – KG Multi Speciality Hospital and Research Centre, VOC Nagar, Thanjavur and Micro Diagnostics, Bengaluru Road, Hosur, Krishnagiri – were temporarily removed from ICMR list of approved labs. One private laboratory – Molecular Virology Laboratory, GNT Road, Nallur, Chennai, was approved for COVID-19 testing recently.
