A Central team headed by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s Additional Secretary Arti Ahuja visited Chennai to review the COVID-19 situation in the state that features among the top three hotspots for the viral infectious disease in the country. According to reports, the team has suggested intensifying containment plans and contact tracing methods in addition to focussing on the death audits. This team is expected to meet Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday and will continue its audit until Saturday.
The team reviewed the COVID-19 situation in 15 districts in the state along with Tamil Nadu’s Chief Secretary K Shanmugam via video conferencing from the Secretariat. This includes the districts with an increasing number of cases like Madurai, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Vellore, Salem, Kallakurichi and Theni.
The team also visited parts of the city along with the state’s Minister for Health and Family Welfare C Vijayabaskar to review containment measures.
According to reports, the central team visited Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, the newly developed COVID-19 facility at the National Institute of Ageing, located inside the premises of the King Institute of Preventive Medicine, Guindy in addition to visiting a COVID-19 care centre in Pulianthope, a neighbourhood where most cases are concentrated. They also visited COVID-19 care centres and fever clinics in some areas.
On July 9, Tamil Nadu reported 4,231 fresh COVID-19 cases of which 1,216 were from Chennai. Other districts where more cases are coming in every day include Thiruvallur, Virudhunagar, Madurai and Kallakurichi.
On Thursday, Thiruvallur showed 364 new COVID-19 cases followed by Virudhunagar with 289, Madurai with 262 and Kallakurichi with 254. The state presently has 46,652 active COVID-19 cases. Chennai that has 20,271 active COVID-19 cases, is followed by Madurai with 4,001 active COVID-19 cases, Chengalpattu with 3,041 active cases and Thiruvannamalai with 2,169 active COVID-19 cases.