Tamil Nadu ranks second in the country after witnessing a steep rise in COVID-19 cases

Ritu Yadav
Amid the 21-day lockdown period, Tamil Nadu is reeling under the Coronavirus outbreak in India, as the total number of positive cases has risen to 411 in the State. As many as 102 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Friday, making it the state with the highest number of positive cases after Maharashtra.
“102 cases were reported on April 3, 2020; of which 100 patients were participants in the three-day event organized by Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi. Among the other two patients one of them had a travel history to the U.S and the source of infection in another patient is being tracked,” Health Secretary Beela Rajesh told reporters in Chennai on Thursday.
She also added that as many as 1,500 people from the state had attended the congregation, leading to a difficulty in tracing, testing and isolating them. The people are spread across 15 districts in the state. Many have actively identified themselves and the lockdown has also helped in quickly tracing the participants.
The state reported the highest number of positive cases on Wednesday when 110 people – all participants at the Jamaat’s event – tested positive. The Greater Chennai Corporation has put out an announcement on social media stating that three employees from the Lifestyle store in Phoenix Mall have tested positive for coronavirus. All the store employees have been under home quarantine since the development.

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All the people who visited the store between March 10 to March 17 and those who work at the mall have been requested to seek immediate medical help. The main source of the virus has been traced to a mall employee who had a contact history with a person from Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider increasing the supply of test kits to the state. He also sought more personal protective equipment, N-95 masks and ventilators to manage the pandemic, in an interaction with the PM on Thursday.

“Tamil Nadu may be allocated Rs 9,000 crore, as requested earlier in my letter,” he said. “As a one-time measure, the fiscal deficit limits of 3% of GSDP may be relaxed for financial years 2019-20 and 2020-21.”

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“To meet additional expenditure arising due to the outbreak, extra borrowing of 33% above the permitted level for fiscal year 2019-20 may be allowed for 2020-21 and that grants due to States in 2020-21 may be released in advance,” he added.

The Chief Minister also said that Tamil Nadu has screened around 210,000 international passengers and 77,330 of them are under home quarantine for 28 days, and the Health Department has identified 22,000 isolation beds, 5,934 ICU beds in government and private sector so far.
The focus of the health department is now to extend the containment plan so that the disease doesn’t spread in the community. Door to door testing with a list of cases with COVID-19 like symptoms, for intense monitoring is helping the state in containing the outbreak, said the state’s Health Secretary Beela Rajesh.