Palanisamy reviews pandemic situation in Tamil Nadu as infections soar

Coronavirus infections at the State level continued to hover over 6000 – 6426, to be precise – with some districts showing a spike in numbers on Wednesday even as Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy addressed the District Collectors to review the situation.

The districts that had high infection rates were Chengalpattu 540, Kancheepuram 373, Thiruvallur 382, Thoothukudi 316, Tirunelveli 382 and Virudhunagar 370, while in Chennai it came down a bit to 1117. Fatalities in the State stood at 82 and in Chennai at 21.

Speaking to the Collectors, Palanisamy explained what the State government had done to combat the pandemic and how it stood above other states on some counts. Only Tamil Nadu had 58 government and 61 private Covid-19 testing centres, he said.

The State ranks first in the number of tests done -24.7 lakh – and there were enough beds to treat patients in both government and private facilities. And extra 15,000 medical professionals had been recruited to deal with Covid-19 situation. Of them, 2751 are doctors and 6,893 are nurses.

Essential life-saving drugs to treat Covid-19 patients had been procured in required amounts and had been despatched to all hospitals, the Chief Minister said.

He also explained all that the government had done to help the people who had lost their livelihood due to the lockdown and that 4,18,903 guest workers had been sent back to their homes.

The government had helped the MSMEs that suffered losses by allocating Rs 200 crore for them and how it had continued with its efforts to improve industrialization in the State, he said, adding that 41 MoUs had been signed to bring in investments close to Rs 30,500 crore in new industries that will provide 67,200 jobs.