Tamil Nadu’s joy over the reduction in the number of coronavirus patients tested positive for the last two days turned out to be short-lived as the State recorded 56 new cases of the pandemic on Friday.
As on Friday evening, the number of persons undergoing treatment for COVID-19 stood at 1,323 and 18 persons succumbing to the dreaded disease till date.
The redeeming feature of the day’s data, released by the department of health and family welfare was the increase in the number of persons who were cured and discharged from various hospitals on a single day. The day saw 103 cured persons getting discharged from the hospitals.
The reduction in the number of persons tested positive for Tuesday and Wednesday had made chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami to claim on Thursday that the intensity of COVID-19 in the State has come down due to the incessant steps taken by his government. “We hope to achieve zero cases in the next few days,” the chief minister had told reporters on Thursday.
With the number of persons testing positive for coronavirus showing an increase on Friday, the chief minister’s statement on Thursday that the government would withdraw the restrictions on a phased manner from April 20 has come under a cloud.
There was no Press briefing on Friday and the Government chose to issue a medical bulletin instead of the health secretary herself addressing the journalists.
But the war of words between the Chief Minister and the Leader of Opposition MK Stalin continued unabated on Friday with the latter asking the Government not to play with the lives of common men.
The Opposition leader has been alleging that the Tamil Nadu Government has failed in testing the number of persons suspected of having the coronavirus.