Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Saturday dismissed the possibility of extending the current complete lockdown in Chennai and its neighbouring districts after June 30.
Two months after claiming that the number of cases due to the virus will be brought to zero in the state, he conceded that 'only god knows when the spread of coronavirus will come down'.
The Chief Minister, however, assured residents that as per doctors treating and studying the virus, the spread will come down step-by-step and that the government is taking necessary measures.
Comparing the lockdown to a 'speed breaker' on roads, he stated that a speed breaker prevents accidents from happening and the lockdown prevents the spread of coronavirus.
CM Palaniswami said 33,839 persons who had COVID-19 symptoms were tested at 527 fever camps set up by the state government. Of this, a total of 694 people tested positive for coronavirus and are undergoing treatment.
EPS also said that a total of 30,271 COVID-19 patients have been cured and discharged from the hospitals out of the total 54,449 persons infected in the state as on Friday.
According to the Chief Minister, the recovery rate is 54% in the state.
He pointed out that 80% of the people who test positive are asymptomatic and they will recover within a week. Only 20% show symptoms of coronavirus infection and only 7-8% are severely affected and are admitted to hospitals.
On Saturday, the Tamil Nadu government revealed that it had tested 33,231 samples from 32,186 people, the highest number of tests conducted so far. Tamil Nadu also reported over 2,000 cases for the fourth day in a row. With the new cases, the number of active cases in the state rose to 24,822.
Meanwhile, the state recorded 38 deaths on Saturday, of which 24 persons died in government hospitals and 14 at private hospitals.
(With inputs from IANS)