Senior AIADMK leader and Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar on Saturday said that there was no necessity for the State government to hide facts with regard to COVID-19.
Replying to a claim of Opposition parties that the State government was hiding data, Mr. Jayakumar pointed to the release of medical bulletin regarding COVID-19 cases by the government, every evening.
“There is no necessity for our government to hide data. COVID-19 transmission is still in stage-II in our State,” he said.
Detection, testing and medical treatment were the three significant stages and the State government was taking steps against community transmission, Mr. Jayakumar said
“Steps have been taken in line with the guidelines of the Indian Medical Association and the World Health Organization. So there is no necessity to hide any data,” he said.
To a query on meetings chaired by Chief Minister and others, Mr. Jayakumar said there was a difference between administrative meetings and meetings held by various political parties. He also pointed out that physical distancing norms were being observed at all meetings held by the State government. "There is nothing wrong in conducting administrative meetings."
As for criticism of DMK president M.K. Stalin that the Chief Minister was playing with the lives of people, Mr. Jayakumar took a dig at the DMK over the killing of several thousand Tamils at Mullivaikkal in Sri Lanka. Soon after the outbreak of COVID-19 in China in the last week of December last year, the Chief Minister initiated steps to procure required medical equipment as early as January this year as part of precautionary measures, he said.
