DINDIGUL
Giving away face masks and hand sanitisers to the needy people, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Saturday appealed to the public to cooperate with the health officials in fighting the COVID-19 effectively.
Speaking at a function organised to hand over face masks and hand sanitisers among other materials, all worth about ₹ 45 lakh, he said that while the State government had been doing its best to fight the virus, he urged the people also to wholeheartedly support the efforts made by the officials at field level.
Citing instances of several front line workers who stood by the challenge, Mr. Panneerselvam said that the doctors, para-medical teams, revenue, rural development, transport, police, and fire and rescue service personnel were working tirelessly round the clock.
They were ably supported by hundreds of volunteers. Collectors were holding review meetings on the surveillance arrangements being made. For the benefit of the residents, the government had arranged mobile vehicles to deliver vegetables at fair price.
Only by social distancing the COVID-19 pandemic can be checked by the people and hence he appealed to the people to stay indoors and not to venture out unnecessarily during the curfew period.
The containment zones and buffer zones, including in Bodi, Theni, Chinnamannur, Cumbum and Uthamapalayam, had been meticulously kept on vigil by the officials and ground level staff from different departments to ensure that the pandemic had been contained well, he said.
Theni MP O.P. Raveendranath Kumar, who was also present, handed over a new vehicle which could spray disinfectant liquid to the Periyakulam municipal authorities. The officials said that the vehicle can carry up to 600 litres of liquid at a time and spray effectively on buildings and other places through six nostrils.
Collector M. Pallavi Baldev presided. Superintendent of Police E Sai Charan Tejaswi, Sub-Collector D. Sneha, Special DRO (National Highways) Thiagarajan, DD (Health) Sendilkumar, Municipal Commissioners R. Ashok Kumar and Nagarajan and other officials participated.
In a press release, Ms. Pallavi Baldev said that while out of 43 COVID-19 positive patients, 34 had been discharged so far after successful treatment, and a woman patient had died. All the discharged persons would be under home quarantine for 14 days from the date of discharge from the Theni Government Medical College Hospital.
The district had sent samples for swab tests and 657 tested negative, and results of 116 were awaited. Meanwhile, the district administration had arranged medical camps at the Collectorate and at all the municipal level for the staff members.
On the first day (on Friday), 418 revenue staff benefitted and about 25 media persons also were screened.
In another statement, Mr. Tejaswi said the police department had issued face masks, hand sanitisers and liquid soaps to nearly 2000 personnel in the district.
Distributing to the policemen in Bodi sub-division, the SP appealed to them to be vigil and also protect themselves from the COVID-19 virus. The district police had arranged to screen the police personnel for the COVID-19 virus in batches by adopting social distancing.
