Students from other states give rise to Covid clusters: Tamil Nadu health minister’s comment sparks row

“In the last three months, the number of Covid-19 cases has remained below 100 in the state with no deaths. However, in educational institutes like Anna University, IIT (Madras), Sathya Sai (Medical College), there has been a spike in the number of cases. The reason is that in several states the Covid-19 spread has not been brought under control; particularly in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala. When students from these states reach the institutions, a cluster emerges,” Subramanian said.

Commenting on the status of the Covid-19 cluster at VIT, Kelambakkam, the minister said close to 5,600 first-year students are staying in hostels. “Eighty per cent of these students are from the northern states. They returned to the hostels around May 12-13 and the virus started to spread. Yesterday (Tuesday), the RT-PCR samples were drawn from 4,192 students and 118 of them returned positive. At 12 pm today (Wednesday), 45 more students tested positive. We are yet to take the samples of the remaining 1,500 students,” he said.

The minister, however, had to face a backlash from political circles for his comment. Uttar Pradesh minister Jitin Prasada called the Tamil Nadu minister’s statement “extremely irresponsible and derogatory”. Taking to Twitter, Prasada wrote, “Disease and pandemics do not know any state boundaries or borders as we have all experienced. This is an extremely irresponsible and derogatory statement by the Health minister of TN, insulting North Indians.”

Disease and pandemics do not know any state boundaries or borders as we have all experienced. This is an extremely irresponsible and derogatory statement by the Heath minister of TN, insulting North Indians. https://t.co/FVRULhoxHY

— Jitin Prasada जितिन प्रसाद (मोदी का परिवार) (@JitinPrasada) June 1, 2022

BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit president K Annamalai also took to Twitter and wrote, “Ministers from our state in DMK Govt compete among themselves on a daily basis to show, ‘who has got lesser brains among them’. Sadly they are letting Tamil people down by their idiocy!”

Subramanian also added that he and the health secretary have visited the institutes and have monitored the measures being taken to prevent the spread. “At IIT Madras, a total of 237 students were infected and all of them have recovered now. Similarly, the clusters at Sathya Sai College have been controlled and zero cases are being reported now,” he said. He added, at Anna University, the number of positive cases now stands at 23.

The minister added that samples from the institutes were sent for whole genomic sequencing and 99 per cent of them turned out to be the BA2 variant and only one person from Navallur tested positive for the BA4 variant and has already recovered. Samples drawn from VIT have been sent and the results are expected soon, the minster said.

“Those infected will recover soon and the institutes have been asked to ensure all students are adhering to the Covid-19 guidelines issued by the government. The government has relaxed all restrictions for the people to live a normal life. To maintain that, the public should follow the safety guidelines. Wearing face masks in crowded places, washing hands frequently are to be followed regularly. Eligible people, who are still due for their (vaccine) doses, should get vaccinated,” the minister said.