The Health and Family Welfare department on Friday presented before the Madras High Court a comprehensive report on steps taken by it so far to contain the spread of the pandemic COVID-19 and claimed that because of preventive steps taken by the government, “the State is free of coronavirus infection.”
In the status report filed before a Division Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and Krishnan Ramasamy, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh said that till Thursday 1,89,750 international air passengers were screened in the airports at Chennai, Tiruchi, Madurai and Coimbatore and 2,984 of them were kept under home quarantine for 28 days.
Quarantine facilities had been created in all those four cities for passengers arriving from severely affected countries, the Secretary said and added that till now 222 samples had been taken from the passengers and 166 of them had tested negative. Only two had tested positive so far and testing of the rest of 54 samples was under process. The report filed in response to a public interest litigation petition went on to state that all government medical college hospitals and district headquarters hospitals spread widely across the State had been designated as hospitals for management of suspected patients of coronavirus with dedicated isolation wards.
Totally, 1,120 beds were available in such isolation wards, including those in private hospitals, with all necessary facilities to treat the patients. The laboratory testing facilities had been established at the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research in Guindy, Chennai, and at the Government Medical Colleges in Theni, Tirunelveli and Tiruvarur, Ms. Rajesh told the court.
Protective gear
On availability of personal protective equipment, she said, N95 masks and triple layer masks were made available in all airports, ambulances and medical college hospitals to handle emergencies. As on date, 3.31 lakh three-layer masks and around 56,000 N-95 masks were available and orders had been placed to procure more.
The government will be procuring 15 lakh three-layer masks, 1.5 lakh N-95 masks and 40,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) kits. It had shared technical documents on screening, laboratory diagnosis, clinical management, infection control and home quarantine with all district health officials and paramedical staff.
“Medical screening is being carried out in all the inter-State borders of the 16 districts. The vehicles are checked and people screened for any suspected symptoms… A 24X7 control room with telephone numbers 044 29510400, 044 295100500, 9444340496, 8754448477 and 104 are equipped to answer any queries and guide the general public. Orders have been issued to advertise coronavirus message on three FM channels and All India Radio from March 19 to March 29 for more than 1,000 slots and 70 lakh information, education and communication (IEC) materials have been distributed throughout the State. The health status of all passengers under observation at home and in hospitals is stable,” the report concluded.
After taking the report on file, the judges adjourned the PIL petition filed by advocate G. Rajesh, complaining about non-availability of hand sanitizers and masks, to Monday since the petitioner’s advocate P.V.S. Giridhar said the State government was yet to issue a notification on including masks and hand sanitizers under the Essential Commodities Act of 1955.
