CHENNAI: The health department, to allay fears of a Covid-19 outbreak after two deaths were reported in Andhra Pradesh and a third incidental case surfaced in Vellore, said on Monday that there was no evidence of a high-severity strain circulating in the state and that case numbers remain lower than in previous years.
In a press note, the health department said the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine is continuously monitoring the situation and urged people to rely on official information rather than rumours. The whole-genome sequencing (WGS) conducted at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune has found that the currently circulating strain causes only mild illness, it said, adding that there is no cause for panic. However, elderly persons, pregnant women, people with chronic health conditions, and those with weakened immunity have been advised to continue taking precautions.
The advisory follows three recent cases, including that of a 52-year-old man from Andhra Pradesh, shifted from a private hospital in Tirupati to one in Vellore on June 26, who was diagnosed with Klebsiella pneumonia — a common bacterial infection along with Covid-19. He also had co-morbidities, including diabetes and chronic kidney disease, and died on June 28 due to complications from the bacterial infection and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
In a separate case, a 46-year-old man from Kadapa district, who was undergoing treatment for Covid-19 at a hospital there, died; the Andhra Pradesh health department is reviewing his medical history. In the third case, a 68-year-old man being treated for colon cancer at a private hospital in Vellore died of respiratory failure secondary to the cancer and was found to be Covid-19 positive incidentally during treatment.
The health department said none of these cases point to a wider outbreak. Under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Tamil Nadu has recorded 335 Covid-19 cases so far in 2026, 1,250 in 2025, and 990 in 2024 — a cumulative 2,557 cases. All the cases were detected through routine surveillance. Most cases have involved only mild symptoms, and there is no evidence of increased severity, the press note said.
People with symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, or respiratory distress have been advised to visit nearest government hospital and to take routine precautions such as handwashing and following the cough-and-sneeze etiquette.