The number of people testing positive for the novel Coronavirus daily in Tamil Nadu has come down to below 10 in the past few days and there was no need to panic over the rapid increase in Covid-19 infections in several countries, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said on Wednesday.
Subramanian said the Department of Public Health (DPH) was “closely monitoring” the situation and is constantly studying the mutation pattern of the Covid-19 virus at the newly established State Public Health Laboratory in the state capital.
He was responding to questions from reporters on the increase in the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in countries like China, Brazil, France, and Japan.
“The caseload has come down drastically in Tamil Nadu. For the past 10 days, the daily cases are less than 10 and we have had no deaths due to the virus in the past eight months,” Subramanian said. He also said the government was ready to increase the number of daily tests if the need arose.
He said the rapid decrease in Covid-19 cases was due to the efforts taken by the state government, especially on the front of vaccination by converting it into a “mass movement.” Subramanian said the coverage of the first dose of Covid-19 vaccination in Tamil Nadu has touched 96 per cent, while 92 per cent of the eligible population have received both doses.
“We will continue to monitor the situation,” Subramanian said. He said the government was now “well-equipped” to study the mutation pattern of the virus at the lab in Chennai. “Till last year, we had to send samples to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, or Pune and results would take a lot of time. But now we can study at our own lab and act accordingly,” he added.
Tamil Nadu has so far over 35 lakh positive cases with over 7 crore samples tested since January 2020. As many as 38,049 persons have lost their lives to the Covid-19 virus.
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