In a first in 14 months since the pandemic began in Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore surpassed Chennai as the district with the highest new coronavirus infections in the state. Coimbatore district recorded 4,268 new cases while Chennai registered 3,561 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday. According to a bulletin released by the Public Health and Family Welfare Department, Tamil Nadu recorded 33,746 new novel coronavirus cases taking the total active cases in the state to 3,10,224 on Wednesday. The state has over 3 lakh active cases even after 29,717 people were discharged following recovery on Wednesday. 
 

In the district tally, Coimbatore for the first time surpassed Chennai tally but recorded lesser deaths than the capital. Coimbatore recorded 31 deaths as against Chennai with 98 deaths. However, as per the data in the bulletin, Chennai has higher number of available beds than Coimbatore. While Chennai has 2,868 vacant beds, Coimbatore only has 549 beds including ICU and oxygen beds.

 

After Coimbatore and Chennai, the highest number of coronavirus cases were recorded from Tiruppur (1,880), Tiruchy (1,775) and Erode (1,642). In the KTC region of Chennai, Kancheepuram reported 909 cases, Chengalpattu recorded 1,302 cases and Thiruvallur recorded 1,820 cases.

 

Currently, cases are increasing in the western belt of Tamil Nadu. Overall, the state continues to test over 1.5 lakh people for the virus each day. The state tested 1,72,424 samples of 1,62,518 people in the latest 24-hour period. All the tests were done using RT-PCR kits; the state does not use Rapid Antigen Diagnostic Tests (RADT).

On Wednesday, the state also witnessed 475 deaths. In the death of patients without comorbidities, a 33-year-old patient succumbed due to COVID-19 pneumonia. A 33-year-old woman from Coimbatore tested positive for coronavirus on May 11 and was admitted to a private hospital in Coimbatore on May 12 with complaints of fever and cough. However, the patient died on May 25 at 4.35 pm due to COVID Pneumonia.