Tamil Nadu has added 86 new cases that were tested positive for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) to its count on Sunday and through the reporting of the fresh cases, the state has crossed its 500 mark as the total number of affected cases in the state currently stands at 571 including the active, recovered, and deceased patients.

Tamil Nadu Health Secretary Beela Rajesh has issued the conformity of the new cases in her daily briefing. According to the Health Secretary, of these 86 cases, 85 have attended the Tablighi Jamaat Conference that was organized in Delhi last month. Of the total number of 571, 522 positive cases had participated in the Delhi conference. With the current numbers, Tamil Nadu is the second Indian state to have reported with the most number of cases after Maharashtra which has reported 690 cases and the highest death toll in the country so far.

Beela Rajesh stated that Tamil Nadu has the most number of testing centers and the state has been equipped with adequate numbers of the testing kits and asserted the state would begin to test the virus affected patients at all government medical colleges. 

Earlier the state government has said that about 1,500 people from Tamil Nadu had attended the Delhi conference and over 1,100 had returned to the state. The government had appealed to those people to produce themselves at the hospitals for the sake of their health and safety of their families and society. On Sunday, Beela Rajesh said that the government has been working to trace the people linked to the Jamaat Conference and stated that 1,246 people have admitted to the hospitals and the department would issue the exact number of participants in the coming days.

On Sunday, the state has reported with two more fatalities who succumbed to the virus. According to the press release issued by the Tamil Nadu Health and Family Welfare Department, a 71-year-old male, a native of Ramanathapuram district who returned from Dubai, was admitted at Stanley Medical College in Chennai on April 2 at 9.45 am. However, at 11.45 am on the same day, he was declared dead following which his samples were collected for further examinations. The samples have returned positive on Sunday by confirming that a 71-year-old had died due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The department stated that in the wee hours of Sunday, a 60-year-old male from Chennai has passed away due to the infection putting the death toll to 5 so far and of these five, three were linked to Jamaat Conference.

As of Monday morning, Tamil Nadu reported with 571 cases positive for the virus of which 558 are active patients, eight have been recovered and discharged while five have succumbed to the virus. These active cases include Indians and foreign nationals and getting treated across the state.

Also read: Corona outbreak: TN reports two more fatalities putting the death toll to 5!