There is no need to panic in the wake of the fresh outbreak of COVID-19 in China since the situation is under control in Tamil Nadu and adequate beds and medicines are ready, Minister for Public Health Ma. Subramanian said on Friday.
Speaking to reporters at the airport here, he said Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, who assessed the situation on Wednesday after a sudden spike in the cases in various countries, wanted the anti-viral infection drive speeded up across the State. Foreign travellers, especially those from China, Japan, Hong Kong, the United States and South Korea, would be checked randomly at the airports. Those who had symptoms of the infection should isolate themselves and take the medicines prescribed by the qualified doctors.
“Since the Union government has advised the States to randomly check the foreign travellers at the international airports, we have kept the RT-PCR test kits ready at the airports in Chennai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore and Madurai to check 2% of the visitors with fever, cold and cough, all symptoms of COVID-19,” said Mr. Subramanian.
The Minister said 92% of the people of Tamil Nadu had received two doses of vaccines and 96% had been administered the first dose. On an average, more than 90% of the people had been shielded against the infection. Hence, there was no need to panic over the mutated version of the omicron variant of the novel coronavirus now spreading in China and other countries.
Though the vaccination rate in Tamil Nadu was satisfactory, the government had readied over 1 lakh oxygen beds and special wards for children. “Hence, there is no need to panic. However, we should take precautionary measures such as mask-wearing, cleaning of hands with sanitizer and maintaining physical distance as the festival season is fast approaching,” he said.
Mr. Subramanian said there had been no COVID-19 deaths in the State in the past 7 months and the number of infections had dropped below 10.
