Chennai: Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar said that community transmission of Coronavirus had not started in the State on the day when 57 deaths were reported and 4343 new cases were detected out of the total 33,488 tests conducted.
According to ICMR community transmission has not started, Vijaybaskar told the media through a video conference on Thursday and listed the efforts taken by the government to manage the pandemic.
He said a modern hospital with high tech facilities and 750 beds would be declared open at Guindy in another few days by the Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy, adding that the State now has 75,000 beds for treating Covid-19 patients.
In Chennai, where the number of new cases stood at 2027 and the death figure at 35 on Thursday, there are 17,500 beds, Vijaybaskar said adding that every government medical college hospital had 5000 beds.
He said Tamil Nadu had done the maximum numbers of tests in the country -12,35,694 tests – and has placed an order for an additional 10 lakh test kits through the Corporation even as it had five lakh kits at hand.
Without a proper medicine to cure the disease, 56,021 patients have recovered after the administration of a combination of drugs and the government was doing its best to control the pandemic, he said.
Replying to the leader of the opposition, M K Stalin’s charge that the government was not considering the suggestions given by him, Vijaybhaskar said most of his suggestions were already implemented by the government.
Suggestions for supply of free face masks, PPEs and financial aid for frontline warriors, transparency in declaring the test numbers were all being done by the government, the Minister said.
He also said that the government was doing contact tracing besides increasing the number of tests. Through fever clinics 550 camps had been held and 30,000 tests conducted. Over 12,000 employees were involved in the fever clinics, Vijaybaskar said, urging Stalin to come to the field and find out what exactly was happening at the ground level.
While Chennai continued to top the chart in new infections with 2027 cases, Madurai came second with 273 followed by Chengalpattu at 171, Thiruvallur 164 and Kancheepuram 112.
