NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, APR 22
Tamil Nadu continued to witness a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases with 12,652 new additions on Thursday, pushing the total caseload to 10.37 lakh, while the toll aggregated to 13,317 as 59 more succumbed to the disease, the health department said.
The recoveries rose to 9,34,966 today with 7,526 patients being discharged, leaving 89,428 active infections.
The state capital continued to constitute the bulk of the total cases with 3,789 new infections, totaling 2,97,814 till date. The number of samples tested today were 1,15,653 pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined so far to 2.16 crore.
Besides Chennai, 27 districts have clocked new cases in triple digits indicating a sharp increase. Chengalpet reported 906 cases, Coimbatore 689, Cuddalore 178, Dindigul 212, Erode 225, Kancheepuram 392, Kanyakumari 220, Krishnagiri 318, Madurai 495, Tirunelveli 449, Salem 411, Tuticorin 354, Thanjavur 283 and Tiruvarur 102 followed by others, the bulletin said.
Among the 59 deceased, eight of them, including a 37 year old man from Chengalpet district was the youngest, to succumb to the virus without any pre-existing illness. As many as 36 of them who tested positive today were returnees from various destinations, the bulletin said.
No shortage of Ventilators, Oxygen: Govt tells HC
The Madras High Court was on Thursday informed by the Tamil Nadu government that the state had sufficient stocks of oxygen and Remdesivir vaccines and that the ”assigment” of life-saving gas to neighbouring states will not affect its position.
There was no shortage of Remdesivir vaccine, used in COVID-19 treatment, ventilators or oxygen cylinders in the state, Advocate General Vijay Narayan told the first bench of the Madras High Court, which took up the matter on its own.
The AG was responding to a query from the bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, which took note of newspaper reports of shortage of Remdesivir and ventilators and that oxygen was being diverted to other states.
The AG told the judges that about 31,000 doses of Remdesivir vaccine were available in government hospitals. The private hospitals may face shortage. If they ask, the same would be supplied to them at concessional rates, he said.
As many as 550 MTs of oxygen was being produced in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry per day and there were 1,167 MTs of it available against the demand of 250 MTs. The assignment of oxygen to Andhra and Telangana would not affect the comfortable position of manufacture and supply of the material in Tamil Nadu, he added.
As regards ventilators, the AG said 9,600 machines were available with the government. Of them, 5,887 were allotted to the state-run hospitals. The private hospitals were in possession of about 6,000 ventilators and of them only 3,000 were being put to use, he pointed out.
Even though there were a total of 84,621 coronavirus patients, all of them do not require ventilators or oxygen, he said adding that there was no shortage of beds, oxygen or ventilators. He also pointed to the bench that similar cases have been filed in six other High Courts in the country and arrangements are underway to transfer them all to the Supreme Court.
Satisfied, the bench replied that there was nothing wrong in diverting additional/excess oxygen cylinders to the needy in other states. It, however, advised the state government to be more vigilant and enforce the Covid-19 protocols vigorously on May 2, when the counting of votes, polled in the April 6 Assembly elections, would take place and subsequent festivities like Ramzan.
TN to provide Covid-19 vaccine free of cost to above 18 years from May 1
The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday said it will provide free COVID-19 vaccination for all from May 1, when the next phase of inoculation drive covering all above 18 years would start.
The announcement comes a day after major vaccine maker Serum Institute of India announced a price of Rs 400 per dose for its COVID-19 vaccine ”Covishield” for State governments and Rs 600 per dose for private hospitals.
Incidentally, Chief Minister K Palaniswami had last year announced that the government will provide the vaccine free of cost once it was ready and beneficiaries in the earlier phases – senior citizens and those above 45 with comorbidities and all over 45 years of age – have been inoculated at government hospitals at no cost.
Announcing the vaccination camp for those aged 18-45 years from next month as part of the third phase of the inoculation drive, the state government said districts which were the most affected by the pandemic will be prioritised in conducting the free camps.
Calling upon people to utilise the opportunity, an official release from the government said the vaccination would help build immunity in the population.
All sections of people in the 18-45 years age group, including those working at markets, traders, vendors, hotel and restaurant employees, auto and taxi drivers, government employees, school and college teachers, migrant workers and transport workers, would be covered during this massive drive.
Vaccination will continue as before in the government vaccination centres free of cost to the eligible population above 45 years, the statement said.
Further, the infection rate, which was brought below one per cent in January and February this year, increased to 10.4 per cent since the last five weeks.
Chennai, Chengalpattu, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Tiruvarur, Trichy and Nagapattinam, which saw a spike in cases, added to the caseload.
The ramping up of the RT-PCR tests to 1,15,000 per day facilitated the identification of about 12,000 cases per day now, the release said.
“Tamil Nadu is the only state in the country to have conducted 2.15 crore RT-PCR tests,” it said.
Chief secretary Rajeev Ranjan, who reviewed the pandemic situation along with senior government officials and district collectors through video conference from the secretariat, said the government had spent Rs 305.04 crore last year in providing beds with oxygen facility for the Coronavirus patients.
The oxygen storage facility in the state was enhanced to 888 metric tonnes from 395 MT. Government hospitals and the private sector together account for 1,167 MT oxygen storage facilities.
Steps will be taken to ensure oxygen is made available to the patients without any bottlenecks. Owing to the increasing need for medical oxygen to treat the covid infected persons, the government has decided to grant temporary permits to industrial units to produce medical oxygen, the release added.
Issuing a slew of directives, Ranjan said the number of beds with oxygen should be increased on “war-footing” by collectors, even as Rs 61 crore has been sanctioned towards maintenance of Covid Care Centers.
Testing should be increased so as to achieve an infection rate of less than five per cent, he said and directed that there be an increased and aggressive testing in affected areas where the results should be given within 24 hours.
About 49.23 lakh persons were vaccinated till April 21. A whopping Rs 11.51 crore was obtained as fine from those who violated the COVID norms, the government said.
