With 75 new patients testing positive for corona virus on Thursday, the number of patients admitted to various hospitals in Tamil Nadu because of the pandemic shot up to 309. This was stated by Beela Rajesh, Secretary, Health, Government of Tamil Nadu.
Her disclosure that all the 75 patients tested positive for corona virus on Thursday were the returnees from the international religious congregation held recently in New Delhi. “Till date we have tested 1103 delegates who had participated in the congregation. Efforts are in full swing to trace the missing delegates and we are confident of doing it in the next couple of days. The Chief Minister himself has appealed to the people who attended the Delhi meeting to subject themselves for Covid 19 tests,” said the Health Secretary.
Elsewhere in the State there were reports that the revenue and local body officials who went to the residences of some of the Delhi returnees came under attack. Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy, along with Health Minister Dr Vijaya Baskar and senior bureaucrats took part in a video conferencing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday morning. The Public relations Department in a release said the Chief Minister explained the steps taken by his administration to check the spread of the Corona Virus. Meanwhile, the Integral Coach Factory at Perambur, a Chennai suburb and the Golden Rock Railway Garage, Tiruchirappalli are busy renovating and refurbishing 473 railway coaches to be used as quarantine/isolation wards for corona patients. Three-tier railway bogies are refitted with toilets and bathrooms, new control panels and beds to accommodate corona patients in the eventuality of the hospitals falling short of beds.
Bogies which have completed 20 years of service are being refitted and transformed into quarantine coaches , according to a release by Southern Railway. Bamboo/khus mats would be affixed or pasted on roof and each side of coach above and below windows to shield effect of heat inside the coach. All middle berths would be removed to make space for the quarantined persons.