Tamil Nadu aims for 90,000 RT-PCR tests a day, frontline workers to get Covid shot in 2 weeks

Tamil Nadu, which had been reporting less than 500 cases per day between January and February, saw a spike in the next few months. In the last 30 days, the state has been reporting over 6,000 cases per day. In districts like Chennai, Chengalpattu, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Tiruvarur and Tiruchirapalli, the positivity rate is high.

Under these circumstances, CM Palaniswami Monday convened a meeting with ministers, medical and public health experts, and secretaries of various departments.

To monitor the pandemic, a committee has been formed under the leadership of the Revenue and Disaster Management additional secretary. Each district is to have monitoring officers, and a special committee has been set up in all zones of the Greater Chennai Corporation.

Fever camps, as many as needed, are to be conducted across the state to identify cold, fever cases and provide treatment as soon as possible. On April 10, a total of 1,309 areas were identified as containment zones in the state. Officials have been instructed to make sure they have enough stock of ventilators, high glow nasal cannula, medicines, Personal Protective Equipment, etc.

The health, revenue, police municipal authorities have been directed to impose penalties on those who don’t adhere to Covid-19 norms. Factories and other big business entities have been asked to make necessary arrangements to administer vaccines to their eligible workers.

The state government has urged the public to come out only if necessary. They have been asked to maintain the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), including wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, cleaning hands with soaps regularly, etc.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu police have collected fines worth Rs 25,90,000 from violators of social distancing and other Covid-19 norms. This collection was made between April 8 and April 11, by registering as many as 6,465 cases. On April 11 alone, a total of 1,796 cases were registered and Rs 8,51,800 collected as penalties.