Chennai: One more COVID-19 death was reported in Tamil Nadu on Monday while 50 people tested positive for coronavirus, including 48 returnees of the Delhi Tablighi Jamaat meet, taking the total number of cases to 621, a senior official said.
A 57-year-old woman who was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on Sunday night here due to Severe Acute Respiratory Infection died this morning and she tested positive for COVID-19, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh said.
The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in the state has now increased to six.
Speaking to reporters here, the top official said 5,016 samples have so far been tested and 50 turned positive today, among whom 48 were returnees from a Jamaat meeting at Delhi. "The total number of cases stands at 621," she said.
Testing of samples of 1,475 Jamaat meet attendees from Tamil Nadu were done out of which 573 tested positive and 855 negative.
Samples of 44 attendees and 250 of their contacts were under process, she pointed out. A government bulletin said Chennai topped the list of positive cases with 110 followed by Coimbatore (59) and Dindigul (45).
The deceased woman, a Chennai resident, was one of the 50 people who tested positive today. She had diabetes and hypertension and a travel history by train to Tiruchirappalli, the official said. Her source of infection and also of another person, (who was also a resident of the state capital) who tested positive on Monday was being ascertained and contact tracing was on.
Those under surveillance are 91,851 -at their own homes- and 205 in government facilities and those who had completed a 28-day quarantine are 19,060, Beela Rajesh said. Work to install testing equipment in 21 government-run medical college hospitals was on, she said adding the Union government's permission was awaited.
"The new testing centres will be operationalised soon." The State already has 17 testing centres. Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Monday stressed the need for an effective containment plan at the meeting -via video link- of District Collectors and police superintendents. Under the initiative, 11.59 lakh households have been covered and 40.71 lakh people screened by deploying over 26,000 field personnel, the official said adding "our focus is on containment initiatives."
Contact tracing was also being augmented more with the help of technology. Over 37,500 calls seeking information and guidance on the virus have been received on the State's helpline numbers, including 104, averaging about 1,800 calls a day, she said.
In Coimbatore, five people, including a 10-month-old boy, were discharged from the government ESI hospital here after having fully recovered from the coronavirus. Those discharged included a 25-year old Spain returnee woman, a businessman from Tirupur, a woman doctor at the Railway hospital, her 10-month-old son and her maidservant (all three from Erode), official sources said.
CPI(M) MP P R Natarajan urged the chief minister to issue an order on paying full salaries to lakhs of workers in the engineering and textile sectors as they were allegedly being paid only half the amount, or in some cases, nothing in a letter to Palaniswami, there was "no clarity" in the Government Order directing that full salaries be paid during the lockdown.
Hence the labour department should be directed to issue a fresh order on payment of salaries, he said Though he had donated Rs one crore from the Local Area Development Fund to upgrade the ESI hospital here, which was treating COVID-19 patients, as also contributions from MLAs, there was no proper protection for doctors and nurses. Besides, there was no proper facility for the doctors, nurses and other health workers to take rest during off-duty hours, he said.
PTI Report
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