Chennai: Health workers administer dose of COVID-19 vaccine to a woman, at the 19th Mega Vaccine Drive, at the IIT-Madras campus, in Chennai, Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022. (PTI) Tamil Nadu on Friday recorded 26,533 fresh coronavirus infections and 48 deaths, taking the overall tallies to 32,79,284 and 37,460 respectively. The state decided to conduct some exams online despite planning to reopen colleges.
Minister for Higher Education K Ponmudy said the first, third and fifth semester exams would be conducted online despite the reopening of colleges and universities on February 1. He said the second, fourth and sixth semester exams, which take place in June, could be conducted offline. “The announcement to reopen colleges will not affect the decision to hold the examinations online. Students as well as parents need not have any doubt. However, practical exams need to be conducted and students have to be physically present for them. On non-exam days, they are required to attend regular classes and that is the reason behind reopening the colleges,” Ponmudy said.
In Chennai, 5,246 people got infected with the virus. The district was followed by Coimbatore (3,448 cases), Tiruppur (1,779), Chengalpattu (1,662), Salem (1,387) and Erode (1,261), among others. As per the data released by the health department, 94.8 per cent of Covid patients are in home Isolation and 5.2 per cent are in hospitals. A total of 1,33,246 special beds for Covid-19 treatment have been set up by the government and only 8 per cent of them have been occupied.
Of the 42,660 oxygen beds, 10 per cent are occupied. Eleven per cent of of the 10,147 ICU beds are also occupied. As many as 28,156 people got discharged, leaving 2,11,863 active infections. A total of 1,45,376 samples were tested in the past 24 hours.
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The health department said there were 5.78 crore people above 18 years of age in the state and that 9,38,82,099 doses of Covid vaccines had been administered till January 27– first doses to 89.83 per cent of the eligible population and both doses to 67.30 per cent. Of the total 33,46,000 children aged between 15-18 in the state, 25,87,878 have received their jabs. As far as the eligible senior citizens are concerned, 3,31,187 people were administered precautionary doses.
Till Thursday, 19 mega vaccination camps were conducted, benefiting 3,46,94,487 persons. The 20th vaccination camp is scheduled to take place Saturday.
The neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry recorded 1,271 fresh cases, pushing the caseload to 1,58,969. Active Covid cases stood at 14,293, including 14,057 in home isolation and 236 in hospitals. The test positivity rate stood at 26.96 per cent. With five deaths, the toll reached 1,921. Of the total cases, the Puducherry region accounted for 835 while the remaining cases were spread across Karaikal (303), Yanam (121) and Mahe (12).
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