CHENNAI, APRIL 10
A 19 member expert committee constituted by the Tamil Nadu government has advised the Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami to extend lockdown for two more weeks to tackle COVID-19 crisis here on Friday.
தமிழ்நாட்டில் கொரோனா வைரஸ் பரவாமல் தடுக்கவும், கொரோனா வைரஸ் தொற்றுள்ளவர்களுக்கு சிகிச்சை அளித்திடவும், ஜெனீவா, வேலூர், தூத்துக்குடி, ஈரோடு மற்றும் சென்னையிலுள்ள மருத்துவ நிபுணர்கள் மற்றும் பொது சுகாதார நிபுணர்களுடன் இன்று காணொளி காட்சி மூலம் ஆலோசனை மேற்கொண்டேன். #TNAgainstCorona pic.twitter.com/5a7YB0Dx7V
— CMOTamilNadu (@CMOTamilnadu) April 10, 2020
A day after the Chief Minister said a decision on lockdown extension will be taken based on the committee’s recommendation, he also consulted public health experts, including World Health Organisation chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan and others via a video link from the Secretariat, sources said.
The advice of experts like Swaminathan to the government was not known immediately. Emerging from the meeting, Dr Prabhdeep Kaur, representing the 19-member committee of experts, said they have recommended to the State government to extend the lockdown beyond April 14 for two moe weeks considering the rise in the number of positive cases.
Kaur, a scientist with the Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Institute of Epidemiology here, told reporters at Fort St George that so far the efforts of Tamil Nadu government in battling the virus was good and it was appreciated in the meeting.
“The public health system is robust and hence the government has the capacity to detect cases and clusters early and easily and this can be further strengthened and this was discussed.”
The government has made ”good arrangement” in respect of having adequate number of beds in hospitals to treat coronavirus infected people and several steps have also been taken vis-a-vis the needs of patients and their family members, she said.
“Many efforts are being taken (by the government) for the safety of doctors, nurses and other health workers who are on the frontline in the fight against the virus. This should be given importance as they could fight the pandemic only if they are well,” she said.
“Despite all efforts, the number of cases have been increasing so far and in the past one week the positive cases was on the rise. All experts feel that it will be good if the lockdown is extended for 14 more days and this is the recommendation of the expert committee,” she said.
In the 14-day period, more testing should be done for people, including contacts of positive people and results should be collected and “based on the data, an informed decision (on ending or further prolonging the lockdown) can be taken two weeks later,” she added.
On Thursday, the Chief Mininster had said that a decision on extending the lockdown depended on the advice of the 19- member committee of medical experts and the government’s 12 panels on tackling COVID-19 scenario.
Replying to a query, the Chief Minister said “We are now in stage two, there is a chance for progression into stage three and the government is taking all steps to confine the infection to stage two itself if the public cooperate with the government’s efforts contain the spread of the coronavirus,” he added.
