Chennai, Apr 6 (PTI) Tamil Nadu on Wednesday recorded a marginal rise of coronavirus infections with 30 people contracting the virus, thus pushing the overall caseload to 34,52,985.

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The overall death toll remained unchanged with 38,025, a bulletin from the state Health department said.

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On Tuesday, the state had recorded 24 new cases.

Health department Principal Secretary J Radhakrishnan, in his message to the district collectors, said after reaching a level of about 20 cases a day, the numbers have started showing an upward trend though the increases are isolated and minimal.

"Instead of reaching a stage of complete virus suppression which should be the goal, isolated cases are still getting reported in Chennai, Chengalpet, Kancheepuram and single cases in Tiruppur, Salem and in one or two other districts," he said.

COVID-19 recoveries were less when compared to new infections with 28 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours aggregating to 34,14,702 leaving 258 active infections, a medical bulletin said.

Active infections in Tamil Nadu stood at 256 as on Tuesday.

Chennai added 12 new infections in the last 24 hours, while 12 districts logged new cases below 10. The state capital leads among districts with 7,51,154 infections.

A total of 22,079 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 6,57,35,610.

Among those tested positive in the state include 13 men and 17 women, the bulletin said.

Meanwhile, the health department directed district administrations to ensure COVID-appropriate behaviour was followed in public places and added that there has to be a continuous awareness on voluntary vaccination.

Allaying fears on the rise in new cases, Radhakrishnan said, "We (health department) have to keep continuing creating awareness about the need for eligible persons to get voluntarily vaccinated, and emphasising the need to continue the public health practices of wearing a mask, (maintaining) social distancing".

Isolated cases reported in the districts should be followed up and the five pronged strategy of test, trace, treat, follow up of COVID-appropriate behaviour and vaccination for the eligible should continue apart from daily monitoring on the trajectory of the cases, he said.

"This will help to check for any early signs of change in trends so that we can take preventive action," the senior officer said.

With the mandatory vaccination notification in public places withdrawn by the Directorate of Public Health, the health secretary said there has to be promotion on voluntary vaccination through awareness programmes, apart from efforts towards vaccination of all eligible persons.

"In consultation with the Directorate of Public Health, as per the guidelines issued from time to time, samples should also be referred for whole genomic sequencing," he said.

Testing of symptomatic people should be continued apart from contact tracing and analysis of the source of information, Radhakrishnan said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)