NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, APRIL 25
The Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) to assess the ground situation due to the coronavirus pandemic in Tamil Nadu on Saturday held consultations with Chief Secretary K Shanmugam and other officials.
The IMCT, deputed by the Union Home Ministry, met state government officials as well as authorities of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC).
State Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar said the team’s itinerary includes visit to government hospitals, besides having a Chennai specific ”focus.”
The state capital has the highest number of positive cases in Tamil Nadu, 495 as on Saturday.
The team’s visit comes on the eve of a complete lockdown in the state announced by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami for Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore Corporations for four days starting Sunday morning.
Salem and Tiruppur Corporations too will undergo similar curfew for three days from tomorrow.
Speaking to reporters, the minister said the team praised the government for the preparedness in state-run hospitals, vis-a-vis COVID-19.
“They have appreciated the government hopsitals” preparedness, containment plans, tracking and tracing system and the diet being offered in the hospitals for COVID-19 patients,” Vijayabaskar said.
Meanwhile, a senior government official said the ICMT studied the various steps being initiated by the state government to control the spread of the contagion.
“The team studied in detail the several measures initiated by the state government in its fight against COVID- 19, the government orders passed and the implementation of World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines,” J Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary and Commissioner of Revenue Administration, said. The central team was also very particular about the implementation of WHO guidelines, he added.
The five-member team which began its three-day visit to Chennai, is led by the V Thiruppugazh, Additional Secretary of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
It held a preliminary meeting with Shanmugam at the Secretariat. Dr Anita Khokar, Professor of Community Medicine at Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, Dr Surya Prakash, Professor, National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Lokender Singh, Chief General Manager of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and V Vijayan, IVC CEO of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, are the other members of the central team.
At Ripon Buildings, the headquarters of Greater Chennai Corporation, GCC Commissioner G Prakash gave a presentation on the steps taken to contain the spread of the virus and the COVID-19 containment plans.
Radhakrishnan, who attended the meeting said, the team would visit the COVID-19 hotspots, treatment facilities and also the places of migrant workers, mostly in Chennai.
