Special Sub-Inspector (SSI) Pauldurai (56), who was arrested along with ten other police officers in connection with the custodial death of a father-son duo in Sathankulam town of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, succumbed to Covid-19 on Monday.
READ | Tamil Nadu: SSI arrested over Sathankulam custodial torture succumbs to Covid-19
Pauldurai was admitted to Madurai Rajaji Government Hospital on July 24 after he tested positive for the virus. His condition deteriorated in the last few days. He also had diabetes and heart diseases. He was shifted to the emergency ward on August 8. He passed away this morning.
Small temples, mosques, dargahs, churches and other religious places with an annual income below Rs 10,000 in the corporation areas reopened for worship on Monday. Besides these, private gyms and driving schools across the state were also reopened.
READ | Gyms, small places of worship reopen
Four students from Tamil Nadu pursuing medical education in Russia drowned in a river in that country and directions have been issued to bring back their remains back home at the earliest, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said on Monday.
READ | TN CM directs officials to bring back bodies of students from Russia
He said he has directed senior government officials to immediately get in touch with the External Affairs Ministry and the Indian embassy in Russia, and arrange for bringing back the bodies of the four who drowned in the Volga river.
The death toll in Chennai as of Tuesday is 2327. Teynampet (Zone 9) leads the tally with 346 deaths while Sholinganallur (Zone 15) has the least with 24 deaths.
Here are the deaths in the top 10 zones in Chennai:
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Welcoming the Centre's announcement on free supply of rice and whole chana dhal to priority households, he, however, said the latter was not part of the staple diet of the people in the state. "Based on my earlier letter to you in this regard, I request you to release 55,637 MT (Metric Tonnes) of toor dhal to the state for distribution till November."
Tamil Nadu received Rs 512.64 crore from Centre in two tranches under the Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness package out of an envelope of Rs 712.64 crore allotted to the state. The Chief Minister wanted this package to be stepped up to Rs 3,000 crore. "Both Central and State tax revenue will fall short of the budget estimates. To make up for the shortfall, Tamil Nadu may be allocated Rs 9,000 crore special grant to combat COVID-19 and its after effects on the states economy," he said.
Palaniswami also informed Modi that the state has fully exhausted the State Disaster Response and Mitigation Fund, and urged an ad-hoc grant of Rs 1,000 crore from the National Disaster Response Force fund.
The GST compensation for April-June, 2020, and a request to instruct SIDBI to provide "at least Rs 1,000 crore as refinance facility," to Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation Limited from the RBI special packages to help revive the MSME industries was among the other priorities the Chief Minister flagged during the meeting.
The Centre should fund 50 per cent of the cost of RT-PCR tests done for detecting COVID-19 and also finance the procurement of high-end ventilators, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday. Raising the demand with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a virtual meet Modi held with chief ministers of ten states on COVID-19, Palaniswami also said a proactive strategy has led to a slide in new positive cases in Chennai and the model was being replicated in other parts of the state.
Pointing to aggressive, targeted testing, a key component of the strategy, he said Tamil Nadu was conducting the maximum number of RT-PCR (Reverse transcriptase-Polymerase chain reaction) tests, the gold standard for COVID-19 screening, in the country. "Tamil Nadu presently has 130 labs for COVID testing with 61 government and 69 private labs, with an average testing capacity of 65,000 tests per day. These tests cost nearly five crore rupees a day. I request the government of India to fund 50 per cent of the cost of the PCR tests from the PM CARES fund," he said.
The chief minister said over 32.92 lakh samples have been tested so far in the state. The recovery rate was 80.8 per cent, one of the highest in the country and death rate of 1.6 per cent among the lowest, he said. "Experts treating critically ill COVID patients have requested for a higher degree of ventilatory care," he said and urged the Centre to "provide funds to Tamil Nadu for procuring high-end ventilators."
Outlining the strategy in the state capital, he referred to door-to-door surveys, fever camps, mobile and 'fixed' sample collection centres and the screening of about 17 lakh people. EPS said, "So far eight lakh RT-PCR tests have been done. With the help of 10,000 field workers, 93 NGOs and 2,700 volunteers, symptomatic cases are being identified and vulnerable people are being provided necessary support."
Chennai has 11,328 active cases after the city recorded 976 fresh cases, taking the tally to 1,10,121.
Here are the active cases in the top 10 zones in Chennai:
A total of 29 legislators have tested positive for COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu till date.
Here is the full list:
AIADMK - 11 legislators
DMK - 14 legislators
AICC - Two legislators
CPI - One legislator
Mukkulathor Pulipadai - One legislator
Congress MP from Kanyakumari, Vasanthakumar has tested positive for COVID-19. The MP has been admitted to Apollo Hospital in Chennai for treatment.
Salvo Explosives and Chemicals, a private firm in Hyderabad has purchased around 700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate which were stored at the Chennai port via e-auction. The firm, which manufactures explosives has begun transporting the ammonium nitrate which is an important raw material for manufacturing explosives. The ammonium nitrate will be delivered to the company's godown which has already been approved by the Explosives Department.
The traditional Siddha system of medicine has come in more than handy in the treatment of COVID-19 patients in Tamil Nadu with nearly 6,000 people being cured of the contagion in dedicated facilities across the state, official sources said on Monday.
Chennai’s Siddha CCC facilities at Jawahar Vidyalaya and Dr Ambedkar Government Arts College in Vyasarpadi, offering Siddha-based treatment for asymptomatic patients handle high caseloads and they have treated nearly 3,200 patients as on August 7.
While 434 patients are undergoing treatment in the two centres, 715 persons are undergoing treatment at 12 Siddha CCC in the districts. Next to Chennai, Vellore has been handling the maximum number of positive cases. Apart from two Siddha CCCs in Theni, the exclusive centres function from Tiruvannamalai, Thachur, Vellore, Thirupathur, Ranipet, Tenkasi, Villupuram and Coimbatore. Two more centres were started at Salem and Pudukottai recently.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a videoconference with the chief ministers of 10 states at 11 am to take stock of the Covid-19 situation. The states include Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.
Tamil film producer V Swaminathan succumbed to COVID-19 on Monday. The 67-year-old producer, who had produced several successful Kollywood movies under his production house, Lakshmi Movie Makers, had tested positive around a week ago and had been admitted to a private hospital for treatment.
Swaminathan is survived by his wife and two sons.
A total of 64 flights will fly between Chennai and major cities today, with 32 departures and 32 arrivals scheduled at the Chennai International Airport.
A total of 5,914 persons tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, taking the total number of cases to 3,02,815.
Chennai managed to report less than 1,000 cases for the fourth consecutive day. With 976 people testing positive on Monday, the city has reported 1,10,121 cases till date.
Other districts like Chengalpattu (483), Thiruvallur (399), Theni (357) and Kancheepuram (310) reported maximum cases.
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A total of 5,914 persons tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, taking the total number of cases to 3,02,815. With 114 deaths in the past 24 hours, the death toll reached 5,041.
As many as 6,037 persons were discharged yesterday, taking the number of recoveries to 2,44,675. There are 53,099 active cases in Tamil Nadu as of Monday.
A total of 67,153 RT-PCR tests were conducted on Monday. The total number of sample tests have now reached 32,92,958.
The state has 130 testing facilities of which 61 are run by the state government. So far, 5,40,175 passengers have entered Tamil Nadu through various modes of transport and 5,814 passengers have tested positive.
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Good morning!
Welcome to the live blog from Chennai where we bring to you the latest updates on COVID-19, unlock phase 1 in Tamil Nadu and more in the state throughout the day. Follow the blog to stay up to date with the state in real time.
Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, Commissioner of Police in Chennai welcomed 32 corona warriors who rejoined the force today after recovering from COVID-19.
While five police personnel have succumbed to the virus till date, thousands of police personnel who have tested positive have rejoined the force over the past few months.
Here are the recoveries in the top 10 zones in Chennai:
Tamil Nadu recorded a pass percentage of 100 per cent after the results for the Class 10 SSLC examination were declared today.
As students wearing masks gathered outside centres to check their results, staff could be seen carrying out temperature checks as students waited in queues.
100 per cent pass percentage was recorded in Tamil Nadu this year after all 9.7 lakh students, who had written their Class 10 SSLC exams this year were promoted to the next year.
The schools will distribute mark sheets of the students from August 17. Students will have to contact their respective schools to get their mark sheets available till August 21. Meanwhile, provisional marksheets can be downloaded through the websites- dge.tn.nic.in, tnresults.nic.in.
Chennai has a total of 11,654 active cases after the city recorded 989 fresh cases on Sunday.
Here are the active cases in the top 10 zones in Chennai:
Special Sub-Inspector (SSI) Pauldurai (56), who was arrested along with ten other police officers in connection with the custodial death of a father-son duo in Sathankulam town of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, succumbed to Covid-19 on Monday. However, the SSI’s wife, Mangaiyar Thilagam, held a few police officers at Sathankulam police station responsible for her husband’s death.
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A total of 70 flights will fly between Chennai and major cities today, with 35 arrivals and 35 departures scheduled at the Chennai International Airport.
Tamil Nadu recorded 5994 positive cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the state tally to 2,96,901. Among these, Chennai reported 989 positive cases, bringing the city's total to 1,09,117. Chennai recorded less than 1000 cases for the third consecutive day.
Tamil Nadu recorded 119 deaths on Sunday, putting the state toll at 4927. 103 of them had succumbed due to comorbidities. The state discharged 6020 patients following treatment yesterday, putting the total number of recoveries at 2,38,638.
As of Sunday, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu is 53,336. Till date, 1,79,247 males, 1,17,625 females and 29 transgenders have tested positive for the virus in the state.
According to a bulletin released by the Health and Family Welfare Department of Tamil Nadu, 32,25,805 samples from the state have been sent for testing till date, with 70,186 samples having been sent yesterday.
Good morning!
Welcome to the live blog from Chennai where we bring to you the latest updates on SSLC results, COVID-19, unlock phase 1 in Tamil Nadu and more in the state throughout the day. Follow the blog to stay up to date with the state in real time.