A 44-year-old man died of coronavirus in Tamil Nadu, taking the toll in the state to 30 as the number of positive cases crossed the 3,000-mark with 266 more getting infected by the virus on Sunday.
The man from Coimbatore became the latest victim to the contagion, a bulletin from the health department said.
The state capital continued to contribute the major chunk of COVID-19 cases at 203, the bulletin said.
As many as 266 fresh COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the state, taking the aggregate to 3,023, it said.
Tamil Nadu has been witnessing an increase in the positive cases since last week as the government machinery enhanced testing facilities to identify the COVID-19 cases.
According to health department, the government district headquarters hospital in Ramanathapuram district and a private hospital in Chennai were added to the list of existing testing centres taking the total number of such facilities operating in the state to 49.
The number of samples tested on Sunday stood at 10,617 while 37,206 people were in home quarantine and 40 in government facilities.
As many as 38 people were discharged after treatment on Sunday alone taking the cumulative to 1,379 in the state.
Of the new positive cases, 187 were men and the remaining women patients.
Eight people below the age of 10 years were among those infected.
Earlier, senior IAS officer J Radhakrishnan, appointed as Special Nodal Officer for Greater Chennai Corporation, told reporters that people were found to be 'negligent' by not wearing masks and appealed to them to extend their support to the government's measures in order to control the spread of virus.
The former Health secretary recalled that during an inspection he undertook in North Chennai, he was able to see people moving around without masks.
"Wearing the mask is not only for your protection but also helps prevent the spread of virus," he said.
The government is taking aggressive testing and that is why we are able to see high positive cases. People should extend their cooperation" he told reporters.
Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash, who was also present, said marriage halls within the city limits would be used to accommodate COVID-19 patients.
"There are government and private schools, which come under our purview. Besides, there are about 750 marriage halls in Chennai and they will be taken over by us... it is a national emergency. We will be adding more beds for the corona patients," he said.
Elaborating, the top official said, "It will be a simple and effective strategy so that serious COVID-19 patients would be taken to the hospitals, while mild cases and those requiring rest will be quarantined at the facilities set up at schools and marriage halls."
"It is for this purpose we are planning to procure 50,000 beds, of which 4,000 were already set up..," he said.
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