Chennai, May 12 (PTI) A total of 42 more people, including a returnee from New Delhi, tested COVID-19 positive in Tamil Nadu in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 34,54,512, while the death toll remained unchanged at 38,025 with nil fatalities recorded in the same period, the Health Department said on Thursday.
The number of recoveries grew to 34,16,049 with 43 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, leaving 438 active infections, a bulletin said here.
Among the new cases, 22 are men and 20 women, the bulletin stated.
Chennai accounted for 24 cases, Chengalpet five, Tiruvallur four, Coimbatore and Kancheepuram recorded two each while Kanyakumari, Nilgiris, Salem, Tirunelveli reported one case each.
The State capital leads among districts with 223 active infections and overall there were 7,52,029 coronavirus cases till date.
A total of 15,926 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of tests to 6,63,56,068 so far, the bulletin said.
Meanwhile, the government said the State public health laboratory, operating under the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, has got accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) and termed it as another ‘milestone’ in public health.
State Public health Laboratory has fulfilled all necessary criteria without any non-conformities and received the Certificate of Accreditation by NABL making it as the only lab to obtain the recognition for COVID-19 RT-PCR testing in Tamil Nadu.
Till date, a total of 26.57 lakh tests were carried out by the laboratory and has always been a backbone of laboratory support for public health.
Chief Minister M K Stalin had inaugurated the Whole Genome Sequencing of SARS CoV-2 virus in September 2021 and the lab was, at present, tracking the emergence of new variants of SARS CoV-2 virus, the release said.
“This was team work carried out by the SPHL staff under the leadership of the Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and that is truly another milestone in public health,” the release said. PTI VIJ NVG NVG
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