Chennai: Tamil Nadu recorded 574 new COVID-19 cases and nine deaths as the aggregate of infections touched 8,33,585 and the toll rose to 12,307 on Friday, the Health department said.
On the vaccination front, 8,704 health care workers, including state Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar, a medical doctor himself, took the COVID-19 vaccines.
With this a total of 51,651 people, including health workers, on the priority list have been immunised since the launch of the vaccination drive on January 16, the government said.
Recoveries from the contagion outnumbered new infections with 689 people walking out of health care facilities after getting cured with the cumulative recoveries mounting to 8,16,205, a health department bulletin said.
The number of active cases in the state stood at 5,073.
The state capital logged 155 new cases, taking its tally to 2,29,860 while the rest was spread across other districts.
Of the deaths too Chennai accounted for the majority of fatalities at 4,084.
Of the 38 districts in the state, as many as 21 reported new cases in single digits while 32 reported zero fatalities.
All eight deceased had co-morbidity or chronic illness.
With 62,152 samples tested on Friday, the state has so far examined 1,55,14,693 specimens.
A private lab in Madurai was accorded approval for COVID-19 testing, taking the total number of facilities operating in the state to 253.
A release from the department of public health and preventive medicine said 8,544 Covishield and 160 COVAXIN were administered to the beneficiaries on Friday in 160 session sites.
About six lakh people including healthcare professionals are on the priority list and would get vaccines free of cost.