As many as 76 people tested positive for coronavirus in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, including at least 25 working for a Tamil television channel here and the tally in the state stood at 1,596, authorities said.
One person, meanwhile, died today and the aggregate number of deaths due to COVID-19 climbed to 18.
However, the gender of the deceased was not known immediately.
DMK President M K Stalin expressed concern over many journalists contracting the contagion and appealed to the government and others to cancel all press conferences till the lockdown ends and wanted the state to test all scribes for coronavirus on a war footing.
Sending news to the media houses through e-mail and avoiding press conferences was a very important protective measure, Stalin said in a statement.
PMK, an ally of the ruling AIADMK, voiced concern over journalists testing positive and urged media organisations to protect their staff and suggested that the government can do away with press conferences on COVID-19.
Not less than 25 people, including journalists, have tested positive of the 90 plus samples taken for the confirmatory RT-PCR test from those associated with the Tamil news channel, a health official told PTI.
On behalf of the channel, a video message was circulated, saying operations have been put on hold temporarily, adding that work would resume soon.
The development comes days after two journalists, including one who worked with the same TV channel, tested positive for the contatgion in the city.
To a question, the official said the test results of those associated with the television channel were being collated and those who tested positive from the media house were being admitted to the Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital at Government Estate.
A government bulletin said 178 people were discharged today following recovery and active cases as on date is 940.
Three girls, discharged from the Stanley government hospital here, were gifted dolls while all others sent home following recovery in State-run hospitals were given fruits and accorded a warm send off by authorities.
"Even if we spend several lakhs of Rupees in a corporate hospital, we would not have got the best of treatment, which we got from the government hospital," said an 82-year-old man who was discharged from the Stanley.
"The government doctors not only treated us for Coronavirus but also for various other ailments.
We got good food. Toilet and other amenities were good," he added.
On Tuesday, 76 people tested positive in Tamil Nadu taking the total count to 1,596 cases, the bulletin said.
Totally, 55 people tested positive today in Chennai and Chennai District has a tally of 358 of the total 1,596 positive cases in Tamil Nadu.
Coimbatore and Tirupur have 134 and 109 positive cases respectively.
As on date, 22,254 are in home quarantine and 145 in government quarantine facilities in the State.
A release, meanwhile, said the Indian Medical Association and the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association thanked the government for arresting 21 men involved in obstructing and attacking people during the burial of a neurosurgeon, a COVID-19 victim here on Sunday late night.
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