As Tamil Nadu reports sharp rise in cases, CM Palaniswami warns state could see phase III of COVID spread

Tamil Nadu on Thursday reported 96 new COVID-19 patients, including 84 from “one cluster”, even as Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said chances of the state entering the phase III of the disease though “efforts are being taken” to contain in the current phase II itself.

The fresh numbers take the tally to 834, including 27 who have been discharged from hospitals and eight persons who have lost their lives.

While 84 of the 96 patients who tested today belong to “one cluster”, an oblique reference to a religious congregation in Delhi, three have inter-state travel history and the remaining nine, including a doctor, have contact history. The doctor is working in a private hospital and is understood to have contracted the virus while treating a COVID-19 patient.

Palaniswami told a press conference that COVID-19 was spreading day by day and the government can take a call on extending the lockdown only after consulting experts. “It is an infectious disease…right now, we are in stage-II. But there are chances of the state entering stage-III. However, efforts are on to contain it in stage-II itself,” he said.

Phase II is local transmission stage and phase III is community transmission.

The Chief Minister also said the testing would be ramped up from Friday as the state is likely to get the first set of rapid kits by Thursday night. He also added that the state has decided to purchase another 4 lakh rapid test kits that can produce results in half hour.

Briefing reporters in the evening, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh said seven patients who are currently being treated for COVID-19 are critical and one of them are on ventilator.

Also, the state completed testing all 1,480 persons who attended a religious congregation in Delhi last month with 554 testing positive and swab samples of the remaining 926 persons rendering negative. As many as 188 contacts of the 554 positive patients from “one cluster” have also tested positive for the virus.

“The number of people who attended the conference kept changing for the past one week. First, we had 1,100 people coming to us and getting tested. The numbers increased and it stands at 1,480 today,” the health secretary said.

Tamil Nadu also increased the number of samples tested in 24 hours – it has tested over 1,100 samples in 24 hours, of which 485 are under process.