Ma Su holds consultation with Mandaviya on Covid spike

CHENNAI: Health minister Ma Subramanian held a video conference with Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and health department officials from other States. He said that in order to minimize the spread of Covid-19 and other influenza like infections in the health care facilities, the state health department has instructed all the health facilities to ensure compulsory wearing of masks in from April 1st, 2023.

He said that Tamil Nadu has been conducting 100 per cent RT-PCR tests from the beginning and health staff have been asked to increase the RT-PCR tests. So far, it is planned to conduct 11,000 tests daily.

The department officials have reviewed and have adequate beds and adequate stocks of testing kits and drugs for the management of Covid-19 cases.

Currently, 24,061 oxygen concentrators, 260 pressure swing adsorption plants, 2,067 metric tons medical oxygen storage capacity is available in the State.

The hospitals have been instructed to do testing for all Influenza like Illness and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness cases as per the existing testing protocols. The testing of 2 per cent random sampling for all international travellers at the four international airports, Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchy and Coimbatore also continues.

He said that suitable instructions have been given to all medical institutions to conduct mock drill exercise on 10th and 11th April and collectors have also been asked to visit a few hospitals on April 10.

"We process all the Covid-19 positive samples for Whole Genomic Sequencing (WGS) at the State Public Health Laboratory and samples are also sent to Centre for DNA finger printing and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad as per the guidelines. We will closely monitor the situation and take follow-up action," he said.

He added that there is no need to fear about the virus. However, people with co-morbidities and chronic diabetes should wear face masks when going to public places. Talking about Influenza, he said that it has been completely controlled in Tamil Nadu as 52,568 camps have been conducted and 19,135 camps were conducted through mobile vehicles and 33,433 camps in schools. At least 21,05,234 people have benefited through these camps, of which 11,130 people were diagnosed with fever and have fully recovered.