The number of new Coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu went up to 5,149 on Wednesday when Chennai reported 1,731 infections and many districts showing a spike in numbers, say like Kancheepuram 325, Ranipet 414, Thiruvallur 430, Thoothukudi 327 and Virdhunagar 363.
In areas with a low positivity rate between two to five per cent, the government has planned to pool samples for testing in the ratio of 1:5. It will increase the testing capacity and help early detection of Covid-19 cases in the community, a letter from the Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, T S Selvavinayagam, to the nodal officers of RT-PCR laboratories said.
Pooling of samples would also improve turnaround time of the samples tested, the letter said and identified 21 districts that are fit for pooled sample testing.
In Chennai, Corporation Commissioner G Prakash held a meeting of representatives of ICMR approved private labs – there are 23 of them in the city – and urged them to collect personal details and medical data of those visiting them for test and hand over the details to the Corporation.
He told them that the tests should be done meticulously and the results given in 24 hours. All employees should be technically qualified and ICMR regulations like putting up banners, sanitizing the labs and providing PPEs to employees should be followed, he said.
Food and Civil Supplies Minister R Kamaraj said that ration shop employees had been supplying rice and other essentials at the doors of three lakh families that have been quarantined.
The state would soon be liberated from the epidemic and everyone was working with that hope, he said after visiting a medical camp in Kilpauk area in Annanagar division. In the division that once had infections in 52 streets, there were only 24 streets with Coronavirus cases, he added.
Meanwhile, Rajapalayam MLA Thangapandi tested hospital and was admitted to hospital in Madurai, becoming the 17th legislator to be infected by the virus.
The districts that continued to have high number of new infections were: Chengalpattu 223, Coimbatore 178, Kanyakumari 152, Madurai 197, Thanjavur 106, Theni 165, Thiruvannamalai 210, Tirunelveli 120, Tiruchi 213, Vellore 137 and Villupuram 105.
