TN Health Min says no community transmission, hits out at DMK

As Tamil Nadu inched toward one lakh coronavirus cases, Health Minister C Vijayabaskar on Thursday asserted there was no community transmission of the infection in the state. He also said 10 lakh more testing kits were being procured as per Chief Minister K Palaniswami's direction. The state has already crossed the 10 lakh mark in testing.

"There is no community transmission. Only the Indian Medical Council of Research (ICMR) has to announce if there is a community transmission or not. Already, based on surveys, it has said that there is no community transmission," the Minister said.

He was responding to the poser of DMK president M K Stalin who had sought to know from the government if there was community transmission of the virus or not. As on Thursday, the state has 98,392 COVID-19 cases while the toll stood at 1,321 Outlining a host of government initiatives like procurement of speciality drugs and ramping up facilities, fever camps and door-to-door surveys for early detection of cases, he said10 lakh more testing kits were being procured and sanction had been given by him for procurement of 93 per cent kits from the state's funds.

A 750-bed facility with all diagnostic amenities will be dedicated soon here (at the National Institute of Ageing in the premises of King Institute) by the Chief Minister, he said. Tamil Nadu has done the highest testing in the country in sync with the strategy of aggressive testing to detect more positive cases which was also the line of the World Health Organiation (WHO) and institutions like the ICMR, Vijayabaskar said. A total of 33,488 samples were tested on Thursday and in total, 12,35,692 specimens have been examined so far, he said.

As on Wednesday, a bigger state, Maharashtra has done about 9.95 lakh tests, Karnataka 6.37 lakh and Kerala 2.39 lakh tests, he said. Also, the recovery rate was 57 per cent, he noted. Taking potshots at Stalin, the Minister said and Leader of Opposition's "idea" to the government to make available face masks free of cost for the people through PDS outlets had already been announced by the Chief Minister. "This was announced by the Chief Minister about 15 days ago. He has already said masks would be given to all ration card holders," he said.

As regards Chennai corporation areas, of the 50 lakh reusable masks intended for distribution in slum areas, 46 lakh have already been given away, he said. On Stalin's comment that protective equipment should be given for health personnel, Vijayabaskar said the government accorded highest priority for their safety and wellbeing. "All necessary personal protective equipment have already been given to health personnel by the Chief Minister and frontline warriors were also being provided immune boosting drugs as a prophylaxis," he said.

Action was being taken to provide the special pay announced by Palaniswami for doctors and nurses. Of the 20,000 anti-viral Remdesivir vials manufactured in the country, 10,000 had been procured by Tamil Nadu government. Its availability had been ensured not only in Chennai but also in other parts of the state, he said adding other requisite specialty drugs likeblood thinners were also being procured. The government has always been transparent and Tamil Nadu has been adjudged first by a publication in disclosing all kinds of data on COVID-19, he said referring to a question of the opposition leader on information on virus cases. 

(Image credits: PTI)