Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has tested negative for the novel coronavirus, an official press release said.
“CM was tested for coronavirus on July 13 and his report has returned negative. Moreover, all staff working at the CM's office too have been confirmed negative,” the press release said.
Palaniswami had to be tested after he had come in contact with a minister who was found to have COVID-19.
DMK MLA RT Arasu had also tested coronavirus positive late last month. He became the fourth member of the legislative assembly in the state to have COVID-19. Others included DMK legislator Vasantham Karthikeyan from the Rishvandyam constituency, undergoing treatment in Coimbatore, DMK's Chepauk MLA J Anbazhagan who passed away due to complications from COVID-19 on June 10, and AIADMK's Sriperumbudur MLA K Palani.
The confirmation of the CM and the staff testing negative came before Palaniswami was to participate in programmes at the Tamil Nadu secretariat over video conferencing. He is also set to chair the Cabinet meeting which will happen later on Tuesday.
He is also reportedly set to visit three districts in the state on Wednesday to review the steps taken to prevent further transmission of the novel coronavirus.
Tamil Nadu has 48,199 people under treatment for COVID-19 currently. A total of 1,42,798 people have been reported to have the disease. 92,567 have recovered and 2032 persons have succumbed to the virus. The state recorded 4,328 new cases on Monday.
Tamil Nadu’s capital city of Chennai has the highest number of active cases with 16,601 patients, followed by Madurai with 3,803 active cases. The latter is under strict lockdown till July 14.
The state has 105 testing centres and until July 13, 15,85,782 persons were tested.