New coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu for the third consecutive day spiked to 6,983 as against 4,862 on Wednesday and 2,731 on Tuesday.

Chennai led the spike by reporting 3,759 new infections as against 2,481 on Wednesday and 1,489 on Tuesday.

The number of samples tested also increased to 1,28,736 (1,27,622), thus leading to more infections.

The total number of cases in the State stood at 27,67,432.

After 721 patients were discharged, the number of active cases stood at 22,828. There were 11 deaths registered.

In the neighbouring Chengalpattu district, the number of new cases was 816, while in Coimbatore it was 309; in Tiruvallur 444 and in Kancheepuram 185, according to State government data.

While Tamil Nadu's test positive rate stood at 5.4 per cent, in Chennai, it was 13 per cent as against 1 per cent ten days ago, tweeted Covid data analyst Vijayanand.