A healthworker prepares an 'oxygen triage facility' for COVID-19 patients as coronavirus cases surge, at Omandurar Government hospital in Chennai, Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022. (PTI Photo/ R Senthil Kumar)Chennai, Tamil Nadu Live News: Tamil Nadu on Friday recorded 26,533 fresh coronavirus infections and 48 deaths, taking the overall tallies to 32,79,284 and 37,460 respectively. In Chennai, 5,246 people got infected with the virus. The district was followed by Coimbatore (3,448 cases), Tiruppur (1,779), Chengalpattu (1,662), Salem (1,387) and Erode (1,261), among others. As per the data released by the health department, 94.8 per cent of Covid patients are in home Isolation and 5.2 per cent are in hospitals. A total of 1,33,246 special beds for Covid-19 treatment have been set up by the government and only 8 per cent of them have been occupied.
Meanwhile, the state has decided to conduct some exams online despite planning to reopen colleges. In other news, the 20th mega vaccination camp is scheduled to take place today.
Also, the nomination process for the Tamil Nadu urban local body polls scheduled to be held next month began on Friday, an official told PTI. The State Election Commission had announced on Wednesday that elections to the urban local bodies across Tamil Nadu would be held in a single phase on February 19. On Friday, State Election Commissioner V Palanikumar reviewed the arrangements for conducting a free and fair poll and briefed the officials and election observers on strictly following the SoP issued on conducting the elections with COVID-19 safety protocol in place.
The ruling DMK on Saturday strongly objected to Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi's remark on National Eligibility cum Entrance Test and asserted that if he tried to do politics by following a 'big brother attitude', it would not succeed.
Citing Ravi's reference to NEET in his Republic Day Address, the ruling party mouthpiece 'Murasoli' said the remark appeared to have an idea to 'graze' the self-respect of the people of Tamil Nadu.
The Governor had said in his Republic Day address: "Improving the quality of education in our government schools is the crying need of the time. The negative differential in the educational outputs between the government and private schools is worrisome. The poor cannot afford expensive private schools. Government schools are their only hope." "Before introduction of NEET, the share of students from government schools to the seats in government medical colleges was hardly 1 percent. Thanks to the affirmative action of 7.5 percent reservation for government school students that number has improved significantly," Ravi said. (PTI)
Puducherry confirmed 855 fresh cases of Covid-19 on Saturday taking the overall case count to 1,59,824. The new cases identified at the end of examination of 3,465 samples were spread over Puducherry 570, Karaikal 172, Yanam 102 and Mahe 11.
The active cases were 12,542 of whom 182 were in hospitals taking treatment while the remaining 12,360 patients were in home quarantine, Director of Health G Sriramulu said. He said 2,604 patients recovered and were discharged during last twenty-four hours. The overall recoveries stood at 1,45,359. Two more patients (one each from Puducherry and Karaikal regions) succumbed to the infection during last twenty-four hours taking the overall toll to 1923.
Sriramulu said the Department of Health has tested so far 21,53,519 samples and has found 18, 06, 515 out of them to be negative. The test positivity rate was 24.68 per cent while the fatality and recovery rates were 1.20 percent and 90.95 percent, respectively. The Department of Health has administered so far 15,31,595 doses which comprised 9,20,377 first doses, 6,04,157 second and 7061 booster doses, he said. (PTI)
The Tamil Nadu government is conducting its 20th mega Covid-19 vaccination camp today across the state to administer vaccine doses to people.
Police said on Friday that they have seized banned tobacco worth Rs 17 lakh being smuggled from Mysore in Karnataka to Coimbatore. According to them, the seizure was made during a vehicle check. The police said they stopped two vegetables-loaded vans proceeding from Mysore to Coimbatore and a check yielded the contraband. The police impounded the vehicles and arrested the drivers. The tobacco weighed two tonnes, the police said. (PTI)
The nomination process began here on Friday for the urban local body polls scheduled to be held in Tamil Nadu next month, an official said. The State Election Commission had announced on Wednesday that elections to the urban local bodies across Tamil Nadu would be held in a single phase on February 19.
In the upcoming polls, 60 councillor seats in Erode Municipal Corporation, 102 in Bhavani, Gobichettipalayam, Punjai Puliampatty and Sathyamangalam municipalities and 735 posts across 42 town panchayats in the district are set to be contested and nominations commenced on Friday, Erode District Collector H Krishna Unni said.
Till 2 pm, no nomination was filed. The candidates may file their nominations till February 4, which is the last date for nominations, he said. After conducting a meeting with officials, the Collector said the nominations will be accepted at 52 places in the district, including six for the Erode Municipal Corporation. (PTI)
A total of 1,33,246 special beds for Covid-19 treatment have been set up by the government and only 8 per cent of them have been occupied. Of the 42,660 oxygen beds, 10 per cent are occupied. Eleven per cent of the 10,147 ICU beds are also occupied. As many as 28,156 people got discharged, leaving 2,11,863 active infections. A total of 1,45,376 samples were tested in the past 24 hours.
The Madras High Court on Friday directed the police to submit a status report on a land grab case against Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M Appavu. The direction to the Tirunelveli CCB came on a petition from the complainant, who made land grabbing allegations against Appavu and prayed for a direction to the police to complete the investigation within a time frame and file a final report. Based on his complaint, petitioner S Dhamotharan pointed out, FIR had been registered in 2019 but after that investigation was not proceeding. (PTI)
The Madras High Court on Friday directed the police to submit a status report on a land grab case against Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M Appavu. The direction to the Tirunelveli CCB came on a petition from the complainant, who made land grabbing allegations against Appavu and prayed for a direction to the police to complete the investigation within a time frame and file a final report. Based on his complaint, petitioner S Dhamotharan pointed out, FIR had been registered in 2019 but after that investigation was not proceeding. (PTI)
The Madras High Court on Friday asked authorities to revamp the entire arbitration clause while dismissing an application from the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board to refer to arbitration a dispute over construction of tenements. The case relates to a Namakkal-based engineering firm getting a showcause notice from the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board over damages to the building. Read more
With merely 21 days left for the urban civic bodies polls in Tamil Nadu, being held amid a marginal decline in Coronavirus infections, political parties in the state began the exercise of marking out the contours of winnable seats. The ruling DMK which ended the decade-long rule of the AIADMK in the April 2021 Assembly election, hopes to maintain its winning streak and on Friday the Dravidian major engaged its key ally the Congress in talks to identify the seats. Read more
In Chennai, 5,246 people got infected with the virus. The district was followed by Coimbatore (3,448 cases), Tiruppur (1,779), Chengalpattu (1,662), Salem (1,387) and Erode (1,261), among others.
Rajya Sabha MP A Navaneethakrishnan has been relieved from the post of secretary of the AIADMK’s advocate wing, effective from Saturday. In a joint statement, party coordinator O Panneerselvam and co-coordinator and Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami said Navaneethakrishnan was relieved from the post but did not mention the reason for the action. Read more
Tamil Nadu on Friday recorded 26,533 fresh coronavirus infections and 48 deaths, taking the overall tallies to 32,79,284 and 37,460 respectively.
Parts of Chennai will face a power shutdown from 9 am to 2 pm, with supply expected to resume before 2 pm if the work is completed.
Thousand Lights/Greams road: Aziz Mulk 1 st to 5 th Street, Thousand Lights, Begum sahib 1 st Street to 3 rd Street, Ramaswamy Street – ( one part) , Model School Road, Alagiri Nagar, Nungambakkam High Road and above surrounding areas.
Kolathur/ Pombuhar Nagar: Jayaram Nagar, Thenpalani Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar,Ashoka Avenue, G.K.M Colony 31 & 32 nd Street, G.K.M Colony 34-37 th ST., (Part), Poombuhar Nagar (Part), K.C. Garden 1 to 6 th St., Papermills Road (Part) RETTERI AREA Venus nagar, Kasthuri nagar 1-5 th street, Lakshimipuram area. TVK NAGAR AREA Vetri nagar (part), Varadharajan street, Kanniappan street, Ram nagar 3 rd main road (Part), SRP koil north (Part), GKM colony 33-43 (part), Kumaran nagar LAKSHMIPURAM AREA Teachers colony, Krishna nagar, Villivakkam road and above surrounding areas. Read more
Welcome to today’s live blog. We bring to you the latest news on Covid-19, politics, features, entertainment, sports, weather, art and culture from across Chennai and Tamil Nadu. Follow our live blog and @ie_chennai to stay up to date with what’s happening in the state.