Lockdown extension: Ministers and officials divided over decision

Chennai

“The Centre has advised the State governments to take a call on the lockdown issue and Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami will take a final call on Monday after getting multiple inputs from designated teams studying the corona spread and the economic crisis,” a highly informed source told DT Next. “Pointing out that the State ministers, district collectors and medical officers are divided over the issue. Some babus admit that the lockdown has helped to stabilise the virus escalation in Chennai,” the source said. “We expected the infection rate to come down, but it is not coming down, though the number of tests has surged,,” the official said.

After higher education minister KP Anbhazhagan tested positive a senior minister wanted the lockdown to continue to Chennai, but again a few ministers want the lockdown to be lifted after improving the bed capacity. “Some officials and the industry captains are against complete lockdown as it only delays the epidemic peak adding to the financial crisis. But health experts want the extension as they are pinning hopes on arrival of new drugs like remdesivir, fabiflu, enoxaparin and tocilizumab to reduce the mortality rate,” a senior official who is also a district monitoring officer said.

According to secretariat sources, Chief Secretary K Shanmugam is also getting inputs from the senior IAS officers deputed to districts to monitor the COVID pandemic works. “For Chennai, the decision to relax the restrictions will be based on the recovery rate. However, schools and public transport will continue to be under lockdown,” said a senior public health department official.