'Tamil Nadu is Coronavirus free', confirms Health Minister as cases soar to 50 in India

Amid the Coronavirus outbreak in the country, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Dr C Vijayabaskar on Tuesday announced that the state has become 'Coronavirus free'. This comes after Tamil Nadu Health Secretary had announced on Sunday, that a 45-year-old man has tested positive for and is under surveillance at a hospital. However, Vijayabaskar said that the lone patient undergoing treatment for the same made a 'speedy recovery'.

Taking to Twitter, the health minister said that this speedy recovery was only possible because of the meticulous treatment and expertise of Health officials in the state in dealing with exigencies and added that Tamil Nadu is 'Corona-Free'.

Vijayabaskar had, on Monday, said that additional 300 isolation wards will be established in Madurai, Trichy, and Chennai to tackle the Coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the health ministry said the total number of confirmed cases in India has risen to 50, adding that the rest are being retested for confirmation. If the fresh cases declared by the state governments are taken into account, the figure goes up to 61.

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Tamil Nadu takes precautionary measures

Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisamy had a review meeting with the health minister and other top officials of the department on Monday (March 9) and asked to set up such isolation wards in the outskirts of other prime districts like Coimbatore, Trichy, Chennai, and Madurai with all the facilities for easy access. Apart from that, 10 lakh masks and 54 thousand sets of protection gears are ready. Medicines and drugs are procured thrice than usual to be on the safe side.

70 samples of the suspected people were sent to tests, out of which one has been found positive and test results 8 are still pending. However, 1088 people are been monitored by the health department officials as they landed from the countries that are severely affected by Coronavirus. They've been asked to stay home quarantined even if they are found negative.

1.22 lakh people who landed from countries like China, Japan, Italy, South Korea, Iran, Muscat, and Oman were screened at the airport in the last few weeks. 10 flights from Chennai to Kuwait and Hong Kong and fro were cancelled on Monday.

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