On Wednesday, Tamil Nadu recorded 38 new cases of COVID-19, taking the tally to 1,242.
Two patients — aged 47 and 59 — died, while 37 were discharged after treatment.
Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar said a postgraduate doctor was among the 38 persons who tested positive for COVID-19. Of the remaining, 34 patients were connected to the “single source event”, while three had contact history.
The 47-year-old man was admitted to the Government Stanley Medical College Hospital with severe acute respiratory infection (SARI). His sample was among 60 lifted from patients hospitalised with SARI, and returned positive for COVID-19. He died on Wednesday. Another patient, a 59-year-old man, admitted to a private hospital, was in a critical condition in the intensive care unit and died at 2.45 p.m., the Minister said. With this, the State has reported a total of 14 deaths.
So far, 118 patients have been discharged from hospitals, he said. Nine patients were sick, he added. A total of 1,876 persons were admitted to isolation facilities in hospitals.
Nagapattinam and Tiruvallur districts recorded seven cases each, while there were six in Erode. Five persons from Chennai, three each in Salem and Chengalpattu, two in Tiruvarur, and one each from Tenkasi, Thanjavur, Theni, Tirunelveli, Vellore reported positive.
The Minister said: “So far, we have tested a total of 21,994 samples. We have tested a total of 17,835 individuals. Today, we have lifted 2,739 samples for testing.” he said. The State has got approval for one more testing facility at PSG, Coimbatore. With this, it now has 26 testing facilities — 16 of them in the government sector. The Minister said that additional manpower had been deployed on three shifts at all government testing facilities. “Each laboratory has a capacity of 270 per day. The capacity of private laboratories is 100. Taking all 26 labs into account, we can test up to 5,320 persons a day using the RT PCR kits,” he explained.
An order for 1.35 lakh RT-PCR kits had been placed, and the current stock position was one lakh kits. In addition, the State had received 20,000 kits from the Indian Council of Medical Research, he said.
No community spread
He said that healthcare workers were carrying out door-to-door checks in containment zones and persons with Influenza Like Illness (ILI) were also being tested. “Persons with ILI and SARI are testing negative for COVID-19. There is no community spread in the State,” Dr. Vijayabaskar said.
He added that as per data for the last three days, the number of samples lifted for testing was increasing, while the number of positive cases was decreasing. “This statistics shows that the situation is under control but all measures will continue,” he said.
Containment measures
There were 558 containment sectors in 34 districts where surveillance measures were continuing. “Wherever we get positive cases, a seven-km radius is demarcated. Here, we screen all family members, primary and secondary contacts,” he said. He added that the Centre was declaring districts with more than 15 COVID-19 positive cases as hotspots.
In reply to DMK president M.K. Stalin’s views that the State should have taken more precautionary measures, the Minister said that the State prepared early and had sanctioned funds to the tune of ₹146 crore to procure the required drugs. The State also made a bulk purchase of N95 masks, personal protective equipment and triple layer masks after sanctioning ₹204 crore.
“There is an uninterrupted supply of triple layer masks, PPE and N95 masks for doctors. Our daily requirement of triple layer masks is 80,000 to one lakh but we have ensured a supply of two to three lakh triple layer masks per day. We are supplying 15,000 PPEs and 20,000 N95 masks every day,” he said.
Noting that patients were given symptomatic treatment, he said the State had procured required drugs such as paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine, and IV fluids. “We have adequate stock of medications to treat 1.5 lakh persons,” he said.
To manufacture medical equipment in the State, the Chief Minister had announced a 30% subsidy and 100% stamp duty waiver. More than 300 medical equipment manufacturers have come forward, he said.
In Thanjavur, a pregnant woman, who tested positive for COVID-19, delivered a boy through a caesarean section. The baby has tested negative for COVID-19 and was fed breast milk from the hospital’s breast milk bank, he said.
When asked about the COVID-19 patient who went missing from Villupuram GH and was found in Chengalpattu on Tuesday, he said the departments of health, police and revenue were engaged in tracing his movement and persons who had come in contact with him.
