TN avoids using 'Delhi conference'; move to prevent stigmatisation of a community

A 57-year-old woman with acute respiratory infection died here on Monday taking the death toll from COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu to six, even as the swab samples of 49 people tested positive. 48 of the 49 new patients are from “single source event”, an oblique reference to those who attended Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi last month.

The government has decided not to use “Delhi conference” or “Tablighi Jamaat” in its daily health bulletins to avoid stigmatisation of a community. Till Sunday, the bulletins had mentioned Delhi conference but on Monday it changed to “single source event.”

The woman, who had travelled to Tiruchirappalli in March, was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGH) on Sunday night and passed away Monday morning. “Her swab samples were collected, and she tested positive. She had an acute respiratory infection and that is the reason we keep testing people with such complications,” Health Secretary Dr Beela Rajesh said.

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Results of 50 swab samples, including the woman who passed away, rendered positive and 48 of the people tested positive had attended the Delhi conference. The total tally of affected patients in Tamil Nadu is 621, including 8 people who have been discharged from hospitals and 6 who have passed away.

The number of people infected with COVID-19 from the Nizamuddin cluster alone goes up to 574 in the state. A total of 1,475 persons, who attended the Delhi conference, have been identified and samples have been collected from all of them, but not all results have come.

The Health Secretary also asked people not to stigmatise those testing positive for COVID-19 or those who are under home quarantine. “Nobody wishes this virus upon themselves. So please do not stigmatise people who have tested positive (for COVID-19). Let us be a little kind to them. The focus should be on treatment and cure,” she said.

The state has so far tested 5,015 samples and have placed 1,766 persons in isolation wards in hospitals.