Tamil Nadu reported 771 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday with Chennai and Ariyalur districts recording 324 and 188 fresh cases respectively. All the cases reported on Wednesday have been identified as ‘contact’ cases in the bulletin. Two patients from Chennai died on Tuesday evening, taking the death toll due to COVID-19 to 35.
The daily bulletin from the government of Tamil Nadu also stated that a large number of Wednesday’s cases are once again linked to the Koyambedu market cluster, thus contributing to the spike in numbers. Tamil Nadu, as of Wednesday, has reported 4829 cases of COVID-19. The state has also tested over 13413 samples of 13281 persons on Wednesday and the total number of samples tested in Tamil Nadu is 1.88 lakh.
The deaths reported on Wednesday are that of a 68-year-old man, who was admitted in Stanley Medical College Hospital, Chennai and a 59-year-old man who was undergoing treatment in Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, Chennai.
Apart from Ariyalur and Chennai, 95 persons from Cuddalore district have been confirmed to have COVID-19. Kancheepuram (45), Tiruvallur (34) and Madurai (20) also recorded fresh cases of COVID-19. Chennai still has the highest number of novel coronavirus cases at 2328.
Tamil Nadu has been witnessing sharp increases in the number of new cases in the last few days due to the Koyambedu market cluster, which has spread across the state. The market, one of the largest in Asia, was open till Monday evening allowing visitors and wholesale merchants of vegetables. The market was shut since Tuesday and alternate arrangements are being made to set up the vegetable market in Thirumazhisai, around 20 kilometres away from Koyambedu. The district administrations across the state have also been tasked with the humongous job of tracing, quarantining and testing around 8000 persons who had visited Koyambedu market in the past few days.
The officials, however, have been attributing the sudden spike in numbers to the focussed testing that is being conducted around the Koyambedu cluster over the last week.