Chennai: Tamilnadu Chief Minister Edppadi K Palanswami today said that the coronavirus infection in Chennai has reduced due to the measures taken by the government.
The Chief Minister, who chaired a meeting with the medical experts committee at the Secretariat today, said that the further course of action on the lockdown will be made based on their recommendations.
Palaniswami held discussions with District Collectors Wednesday via video conferencing and received their views on extension of lockdown to check the spread of Covid-19. He will take a final decision today after consulting with health experts.
According to sources, the lockdown will continue in August with more relaxations. According to reports, there is a strong indication that the State government may resume inter-district bus transport. However, this may not happen within Chennai city limits.
Asserting that various steps are being taken to tackle the spread of coronavirus pandemic, Palaniswami Wednesday said Tamilnadu ranks first among the States in India in testing while the recovery rate was higher and the Covid-19 mortality rate was the lowest in the country.
In his address at a meeting of all District Collectors via video-conferencing from the State Secretariat to take stock of the prevailing Covid-19 situation and to decide on whether to extend lockdown 6.0 or not after 31 July, he said the testing rate is highest in Tamilnadu and it stood first among all States in the country.
He said till date 24.7 lakh samples were tested in the State, which was the highest in the country and door to door testing was being done to identify those having virus symptoms.
Stating that various steps have been taken to tackle the virus spread, Palaniswami said 46 lakh face masks have been distributed in Chennai and the recovery rate was more than 73 per cent, which is also the highest in India.
Noting that Corona Fatality Rate (CFR) was the lowest in Tamilnadu among all States in the country, the Chief Minister said 15,000 healthcare workers were deployed in the fight against the pandemic.