Chennai:
Tamil Nadu continued to witness an increase in fresh COVID-19 cases and the state on Saturday recorded 1,243 new infections and 8 fatalities, taking the caseload to 8,65,693 and the death toll to 12,590.
A returnee from UAE and a passenger each from Maharashtra and Rajasthan added to the new cases today.
Owing to the steady increase in new cases in Chennai and several districts, the state government had earlier in the day directed schools across Tamil Nadu to close for 9, 10 and 11 standards, with effect from March 22, until further orders, but allowed classes for 12 standard students, facing the board exam, to continue with standard operating procedure (SOP).
The recoveries with 634 people getting discharged were nearly half the total number of fresh cases reported today.
The cumulative number of the discharged accounts to 8,45,812, leaving 7,291 active cases.
Chennai accounted for the bulk of fresh cases today with 458 while 259 people were discharged. The metro also reported two deaths.
Chengalpattu, Cuddalore, Kancheepuram, Thanjavur, Tiruchirappalli and Villupuram reported one fatality each.
Of them, six were due to comorbidities, according to a state health bulletin.
Chengalpattu accounted for 134 new cases today, Coimbatore 103, Tiruvallur 87 and Thanjavur 85.
Kallakurichi, Perambalur and Ramanathapuram reported single case each.
Chennai accounted for most of the infections aggregating to 2,41,127 while recoveries stood at 2,34,184.
The active cases remain at 2,747 while fatalities 4,196.
