Even as the Health Experts Committee appointed by the Government of Tamil Nadu was having a two-hour long parley with Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami at Fort Saint George (Secretariat) about the future course of action to be taken on June 30, as the lock down declared in four districts and Madurai corporation is coming to an end on Tuesday, the number of Covid-19 patients was moving upward breaking all previous records.
According to the medical bulletin released by the Government of Tamil Nadu by Monday evening, a record number of 3,949 persons were diagnosed with Covid-19 in the State on a single day with Chennai alone accounting for 2, 167 patients.
The day also saw 62 persons succumbing to the pandemic taking the death toll till date to 1,141 in the State. Out of the 62 persons died on Monday, 51 died with co-morbidities.
The day Chennai was locked down (19 June) 1,322 persons had tested positive for the coronavirus. Monday’s numbers indicate that the covid-19 pandemic has not been weakened because of the lock down.
The bulletin released on Monday said there are 37,331 active patients in the State while till date 86, 224 persons have been diagnosed with coronavirus. The number of persons discharged from the hospitals fully recovered rose to 47,749 by Monday.
Aggressive testing to identify and isolate the coronavirus patients continued in the State as 90 laboratories tested more than 30,000 patients on a single day and this took the total number of persons tested till date to 1.086 million. The State has also tested 1.14 million samples till date.
The problematic districts of Chengalpet (187), Kancheepuram (75), Thiruvallur (154) continued to be areas of concern. But results from Madurai (290), Vellore (144), Virudhunagar (77), the industrial hub of Coimbatore (65) are causing anxiety among the policy makers.
Dr Prabhdeep Kaur, deputy director, National Institute of Epidemiology, who led the committee of experts told media persons after the meeting chaired by the chief minister that they did not recommend for extending the lock down or bring more districts under lock down.
“Lockdown is a blunt instrument - it is not a solution at all times; it should be enforced when there is a need,” said Dr Kaur. She said the State could not remain under lock down all the time. “We have to assess the situation of a district or taluk based on the indicators given by the World Health Organisation or the health experts committee. Enforcing lockdown in all areas is not necessary,” said Dr Kaur.
She said in the past meetings, the committee had suggested that the number of tests should be increased and the government implemented that. “In Chennai, around 10,000 tests per day are being done. That is a good initiative. Similarly, across Tamil Nadu, the number of tests has improved. Nearly 32,000 tests are being done per day,” she added.
The Tamil Nadu Government has not come out with any statement even at the time of going to Press though there are signs that an order taking into account the recommendations made by the committee would be released late night.
