CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu on Tuesday witnessed 23,888 new cases of COVID-19 thereby pushing the caseload to 29,87,254 while 29 more fatalities took the toll to 37,038 even as the State continued to report a rise in the cases, said the Health Department.
As many as 15,036 people recovered in the last 24 hours aggregating to 27,89,045 leaving 1,61,171 active infections, a bulletin said.
Chennai accounted for the majority of the new infections with 8,305 followed by Coimbatore 2,228 and Chengalpet 2,143 while the rest were spread across other districts.
Those who tested positive today included 23 returnees from domestic and overseas locations.
A total of 1,41,562 samples were tested in the last 24 hours and pushed the cumulative number of specimens examined to 5,98,30,285 so far.
Earlier in the day, State Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian launched a facility to administer precautionary booster dose at the doorstep of those people aged above 60 and having co-morbidities.
The government launched the initiative to administer precautionary booster dose to healthcare and front-line workers, people above the age of 60 on January 10.
Till now, 92,522 people have benefitted from the initiative, Subramanian told reporters.
According to him, 4,48,232 people were eligible to receive the booster dose.
He said the government would hold precautionary booster dose camps every Thursday to inoculate the eligible beneficiaries.
He said the mega vaccination camps conducted every Saturday by the Health Department would be held as usual.