Chennai reports under 1000 coronavirus cases for the first time in weeks

CHENNAI: The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in Chennai was below 1000 for the first time in weeks providing some relief to the district which has been the worst affected by the pandemic.

However, the rise in deaths in the State continued with Tamil Nadu reporting the highest ever number of deaths on Friday as 119 people succumbed to the infection.

Earlier, the highest ever number of deaths were reported on Wednesday with 112 people succumbing to Covid-19 in the State.

The total number of Covid related fatalities in the state increased to 4690, according to the state media bulletin.

As many as 5880 fresh cases were reported on Friday taking the total tally to 285,024 in the State.

Chennai had been hovering above the 1,000 mark for weeks while other districts in the state continued to report a rise in cases.

Chengalpet, Theni and Thiruvallur had over 300 cases while Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Ranipet, Thanjavur, Thiruvannamalai and Tirunelveli had more than 200 cases.

Testing remained over 65,000 for the second day in a row on Friday.

The number of recoveries were at 6488 on Thursday, taking the total count of recoveries to 227,575.