For the fifth consecutive day, the number of Coronavirus positive cases in Tamil Nadu was above 1,000 with 1,384 people infected. This is in tandem the government substantially increasing testing of blood samples for the virus in the last two days.

Today, 16,447 samples were tested as against 14,101 on Wednesday and 11,094 on Tuesday. The State earlier was testing around 10,000 samples every day.

The total number of cases in the State is now at 27,256. After 585 Covid-19 patients being discharged today, the total persons recovered is 14,901. This leaves the number of active cases at 12,132.

In Chennai alone, 1,072 cases were reported on Thursday to take the total infected to 18,693. Of this, 9,459 persons have been discharged to leave the number of active cases in the city at 9,066.

The number of deaths due to the virus rose to 220 with an increase by 12 today, says government data.