CHENNAI: A 98-year-old man died of COVID-19 here as the state reported the highest ever of 203 positive cases on Friday, even as the Chennai corporation said those found violating the lockdown regulations will be penalised Rs 100 a day and put in quarantine for 14 days.
Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar said that with the fresh cases, the tally now stood at 2,526. "The COVID-19 death toll rose to 28 with the death of the nonagenarian at a city hospital," Baskar said. The state has been reporting over 100 cases for the last three days and the capital city clocked another day of heavy numbers accounting for 176 of the fresh infections, he told reporters.
Tamil Nadu had reported 161 fresh cases on Thursday, 104 on Wednesday and 121 on Tuesday. According to him, Chennai continues to constitute the bulk of COVID19 cases and its tally now is 1,082 cases.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government appointed senior bureaucrat J Radhakrishnan as special nodal officer for Greater Chennai Corporation to coordinate coronavirus-related issues with the civic body chief. Radhakrishnan would be supported by a team of senior police officers including four ADGP-rank officers.
Earlier in the day, Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner Prakash said Chennai was reporting a bulk of the coronavirus cases, since it has places which have high density of COVID-19 positive people.
The civic agency also has stepped up measures to control the spread of the virus which include imposing a penalty of Rs 100 per day besides housing those violating lockdown rules in a quarantine facility for 14 days.
According to the circular by Greater Chennai Corporation the measures were taken as the pandemic requires continuous preventive measures. "It is hereby notified that strict measures of preventing the spread of disease and social distancing and preventive measures be followed in all public places," the circular said.
The civic agency said that strict disinfection should be done in places for every two hours and there has to be social distancing of minimum one metre distance between two persons. People entering public spaces should compulsorily wear mask while hand sanitizers should be placed so that customers use it before entering the place of commercial establishment.
It said that those shops and commercial establishments which violate the lockdown rules will be sealed and licenses would be cancelled. A total of 12 districts have been marked as 'red zone', 24 districts under orange zone category while Krishnagiri is the only district in the state with zero COVID19 cases termed as 'green zone'.
The classification of zones is multi-factorial and takes into incidence of cases, doubling rate, extent of testing and surveillance feedback to classify the districts, a health department bulletin said. Among the 203 cases reported on Friday, 117 were men while 86 women, Baskar said.
As many as 33,184 people were in home quarantine while 40 in government facilities. Till date 1,312 people have been discharged, he said. A two year old baby girl, a two and half year old baby boy and an 85-year-old woman were among those who tested positive today.
Nearly 222 patients were discharged from Chennai alone after treatment followed by Coimbatore at 127 and 105 patients in Tiruppur. Noting that government has been focusing more on testing at containment zones particularly in red and orange zones, he said 33,819 people alone were tested in Chennai on Friday.
The government, he said, was working on a strategy in which tests were even done on people who show mild symptoms of fever and cold so that data can be collected, he said. "Based on the collected data, those who turned COVID19 positive can be treated and it also allows the government to take preventive measures so that the disease does not spread from the affected individual in the locality," Baskar said.
Citing an example, he said when a journalist was tested COVID19 positive, the government immediately took measures and 30 people who came in contact with the individual were identified in a media organisation. "Right now they are all very well treated," he said.
To a query, he said Tamil Nadu was having the highest recovery rate at 54 per cent while mortality rate was lowest at 1.2 per cent. For every containment zone, special committees have been formed to take up preventive measures for COVID-19. "Public need not panic about the contagion but I appeal to them to extend their full cooperation to the government measures considering the intensity of the virus", he said.