Tamil Nadu sees 7.10 per cent drop in corona cases, CM to hold meeting today

SALEM| CHENNAI: Reversing a relentless uptrend, Tamil Nadu witnessed some relief on Tuesday with the number of patients testing positive for COVID-19, novel coronavirus, fractionally dropping by 7.10 per cent both at the state and Chennai city levels, giving everyone a breather.

While the per-day positive COVID-19 cases for the state as a whole dropped to 2,516 from Monday's all-time day-wise spike of 2,710, greater Chennai also saw some respite with positive cases declining to 1,380 from 1,487 on Monday. But the total number of deaths kept spiraling to 833, after 39 COVID-19 deaths were confirmed by the State Health department today.

The number of persons tested for COVID-19 was tad lower at 23,921. In Chennai city, though, the testing momentum was kept up with over 600 'fever camps' held across the 15 zones on Tuesday, according to the Food Minister R Kamaraj who oversaw the cash relief distribution of Rs.1,000 to each of the rice card holders under PDS in the city. He said 53.33 per cent of the households had been covered in the city in disbursing the cash till date.  

With a 'full lockdown' to be in force from tonight in Madurai, that southern district saw slightly reduced positive cases at 137 today, next only to Thiruvallur-156 and Chengalpattu district with 146 COVID-19 infections. As Salem district picked up some rapid numbers, the public health authorities there curtailed retail shopping and shops were asked to shut by 4 pm today. A 60-year-old woman succumbed to the virus in Salem GH today.

CM TO TALK TO COLLECTORS AGAIN

Amid unconfirmed reports that Theni district could go under a 'full lockdown' next, after Madurai (on Tuesday Theni reported 48 new coronavirus positive cases), there is a sense of unease among sections of the public that the 'intense lockdown' may not be effective after all, as more and more people moved from Chennai to their home districts.

In this backdrop, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami is scheduled to hold a video-conference meeting with all the district collectors from Chennai on Wednesday, to take stock of the COVID-19 preventive and control measures in each district and to also discuss options on whether to uniformly extend the 'full lockdown' to all the other districts till June 30, or curb more select tier-two cities and towns on a strict necessity basis depending on the severity of coronavirus spread in the respective areas.