Man's death stokes fresh fears over COVID in Chennai

Chennai: After a 42-year-old man, who tested positive for COVID, passed away in Chennai on Thursday, the city administration is on high alert. The man, who was a resident of the Adambakkam area in Chennai, was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government Medical College hospital on December 3` after he tested positive. Soon after he turned unresponsive to the treatment, he succumbed to the infection. The news of the death has, now, created panic in the state with the news of the JN.1 variant spreading rapidly doing the rounds.  Though the Tamil Nadu Government’s Health ministry has been consistently stating that the situation is under control, the public has started panicking following the news of the death.

The new sub-variant JN.1 has started to slowly spread its tentacles across India. As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, there has been a steady increase in the number of positive cases daily. With the maximum number of cases being reported from Chennai, other important cities in Tamil Nadu like Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy have followed suit.

According to the Health Minister of Tamil Nadu, Ma Subramaniam, “There is no need to panic. We are constantly supervising the situation. The spread of the JN.1 variant is hugely recorded in countries like Indonesia, Singapore, and Philippines. Other countries are still not experiencing so much of a threat. The other countries are not even considering it a threat. But on the contrary, in Tamil Nadu, we are supervising the situation and have it under control. The situation is not bad like it used to be previously during the time of the initial stages of the pandemic and the time of the Omicron variant spread. Therefore, I request the people to calm down and wear masks and stay safe so that we can all together control the spread and continue with our lives”.

According to the latest data from the Health department of Tamil Nadu, 29 fresh cases have been reported. The active cases in the state now stand at 178.