Chennai, Jul 19 (IANS): As many as 4,979 persons tested positive for coronavirus over the past 24 hours in Tamil Nadu while 4,059 Covid-19 patients were discharged from various hospitals, said the State Health Department on Sunday.

In a statement issued here, the department said 4,979 persons tested positive for coronavirus in the state, taking the total tally of infected persons till date in Tamil Nadu to 170,693.

A total number of 4,059 persons were discharged from various hospitals taking the total number of Covid-19 cured patients to 117,915.

The total number of Covid-19 patients who died over the past 24 hours was 78 taking the death toll to 2,481 in the state.

The number of active Covid-19 cases in the state after taking into account the cured and dead stands at 50,294.

The number of infected children in the state in the age group 0-12 went up to 8,507.

The state capital Chennai continued to head the Covid-19 infection table with 1,254 persons testing positive for the virus and the total tally stands at 85,859. The active cases in the city stands at 15,042 while the total number of Covid-19 patients discharged in Chennai stood at 1,189.