Tamil Nadu  lost 97 persons to Covid-19 during the last 24 hours ending Friday evening. The State also saw 5,881 persons testing positive for Covid-19 during the same period. The number of new persons diagnosed with coronavirus was higher than that of Thursday while the number of persons succumbing to the pandemic remained the same.

There were 57,968 Covid-19 patients in the State as on Friday. The total number of persons tested positive till date crossed 2.45 lakh while the State tested 58,350 persons on Friday.

 A total of 5,778 patients recovered from the pandemic and got discharged from the hospital in the last 24 hours. As part of aggressive testing for the pandemic, there are 120 laboratories operating across the State.

Chennai, once the epicentre of Covid-19, showed a fall in the number of persons tested positive. Friday saw the number of new positive cases coming down to 1, 013. But there was no let up in the three neighbouring districts of Chengalpet (334), Kancheepuram (485) and Thiruvallur (373).

The decision of some of the educational institutions asking the teaching and non-teaching staff to be present from August 3 has sent shock waves across the teaching community. “Both Chennai and Chengalpet districts are facing severe situation because of the pandemic. Then how they expect us to be physically present in the University,” some of the Staff members of SRM University asked this newspaper. They said the on-line system was functioning effectively and  it would not make any difference if the teachers are forced to physically present in the institution.

Situation in the southern district of Virudhunagar, home to Sivakasi, the hub of fire-cracker industries and printing presses, continued to be grave as 357 patients were diagnosed with the pandemic on Friday.