Tamil Nadu Minister for Co-operation Sellur Raju on Friday tested positive for the novel coronavirus and has been admitted in a private hospital at Manapakkam to undergo treatment. Sellur Raju's wife Jayanthi had earlier tested positive for COVID-19 on July 4. According to reports, doctors have stated that the minister's health condition at present is stable. 

Minister Sellur Raju, who represents Madurai West Constituency, is the third minister in the state to test positive for COVID-19. It is to be noted that eight MLAs have also been found to be positive for coronavirus. Among those in the ruling AIADMK who are admitted in the hospital for coronavirus treatment are Minister for Higher Education K. P. Anbazhagan, Minister for Electricity Thangamani, former Minister B. Valarmathi, Sriperumbudur MLA Palani, Ulundurpet MLA Kumaraguru and Coimbatore MLA Amman Arjunan. 

Tamil Nadu is currently the second worst-affected state in the country due to the COVID-19 outbreak with 1,26,581 cases as 4,231 new cases were recorded on Thursday. Yesterday was also the first time after three straight days that the state had witnessed the numbers cross the 4,000 barrier with the active cases in TN currently standing at 46,652.

Chennai city continues to account for the most number of coronavirus cases in the state with 1,216 new cases yesterday taking the district's overall count to 73,728 cases. Despite Chennai registering the most number of cases in the state, the city has seen a big dip in the cases count over the past week with more and more people now testing positive for the disease in the Madurai district. Chennai city had reported less than 1,300 cases in the past three days with the active cases count said to be as 20,271 by the state health department. 

TN government also revealed that 65 people passed away on Thursday due to COVID-19 with the death toll going up to 1,765 persons. There was substantial improvement in the number of recoveries as 3,394 patients got discharged taking the total numbers to 78,161. The recovery rate for the state is currently at 61.75%