Chennai, Dec 23 (Representative) As there has been spike in COVID casesin several countries, including China, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K.Stalin chaired a meeting to review the situation and appealedto the people not to panic as the government has put in place allnecessary measures to protect them. An official release here said Stalin chaired the meeting heldat the State Secretariat and discussed ways to manage andcontrol the COVID spread. Health Secretary P.Senthilkumar made a detailed explanationon the State’s preparedness and said the government hadstepped up monitoring and whole genome sequencing in linewith the circular issued by the Union Health Ministry. “What is causing the infection in Tamil Nadu is the XBB variant,which is a recombinant of BA-2. The BF-7, which is causingspike in cases in some Asian countries, is also a sub-variantof BA-5 and it was mainy responsbile for the infections reportedin Tamil Nadu during June to August this year”, he said.
Despite there has been significant dip in the daily cases asa mere five cases were reported in Tamil Nadu yesterdayand the infection rate has come down, all the governmenthspitals are equipped with enough beds, medicine andoxygen and testing fcilities. Medical officials have been advised to do whoe genomesequencing and monitor the infection including influenzalike illness and severe acute respiratory infections, he said. During the meeting, the Chief Minister advised the healthdepartment officials to implement Standard OperatingProcedures (SOP) for COVID management, especiallyin places were people gathered in large numbers andindoor facilities. He also advised the officails to follow the SOP in theinternational airports and provide treatment to passengerswith symptoms of COVID. Meanwhile, Director of Public Health T.S. Selvavinayagamhas written to the Union Health Ministry seeking guidelinesto mandatorily test international passengers arriving fromChina and Hong Kong in view of the possible threat of afresh wave of COVID-19 epidemic there.
In the letter, he recalled the previous guidelines that includedthe five-fold strategy of trace, test, treat, vaccinate and adhereto COVID appropriate behaviour. The Centre had revised its earlier guidelines and withdrawnthe random testing of 2% international passengers as thenumber of new cases had come down drastically. However, Dr. Selvavinayagam cited information in public domain thatsaid China had reported 430 deaths and more than 1.48 lakhCOVID cases in the past week, the surge owing to Omicron Variant BF.7. This had been confirmed by the World Health Organisationas well, he added. Tamil Nadu has reported 49 cases and zero Covid-19 deathsin the last one week. Tamil Nadu had administered the first dose of preventivevaccine to 97% of the population and second dose to 92%of the people, He said so far, 12.74 crore doses had been administeredin the State.