Employing effective clinical management strategies, the Government of Tamil Nadu has succeeded in stabilising the number of patients afflicted with coronavirus in the State, according to Dr C Vijaya Baskar, Minister for health.
Speaking to journalists after a lengthy meeting presided over by Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami at Fort Saint George, Dr Baskar, himself a qualified medical doctor said that Tamil Nadu has emerged as the State with the maximum number of testing laboratories (26) capable of testing samples from 5,320 persons per day.
“Ours is the State with the maximum number of laboratories in the country,” said the Minister who was accompanied by Dr Beela Rajesh, the secretary of health and family welfare during the media briefing.
Dr Baskar said that 38 persons tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday and the number of patients in the State stood at 1,242.
He also disclosed that by Wednesday 118 persons who were undergoing treatment in various hospitals in the State for Covid-19 were discharged. “Two persons succumbed to the coronavirus on Wednesday taking the number of deaths in the State to 14.
The Minister said that he chose to brief the media to set the records right in the backdrop of the allegations levelled by M K Stalin, Leader of opposition and president of the DMK. Stalin had said in a statement on Tuesday that the State was thoroughly unprepared for the pandemic
though there were enough indications about the impending mishap.
Elsewhere in the State, the police and health
officials heaved a sigh of relief as the police took into custody the New Delhi based youth who had tested positive for coronavirus and had escaped from the general hospital in Villupuramlast week. The youth was taken in to custody by Police from Chengalpettu district following intelligence input provided by the local informants.
Dr Baskar in his press briefing also disclosed that though coronavirus struck the State only after it was reported in Kerala, Tamil Nadu had made elaborate arrangements to tackle and prevent the contagious disease.
The number of patients in the State shot up only by the last week of March as a fall out of the arrival of people from single source point (the Delhi meet of Tablighi Jamaat), he said.