Lives versus livelihoods

The prolonged lockdown has taken a toll on the economy and livelihoods of people while deaths due to the virus continue to be reported in the State. Here’s a sneak peek into the situation across districts

Going viral

1. A woman who attended a funeral along with her husband tested positive in Villupuram. The couple took part in the ceremony along with their daughter and a bus service owner. The officials suspect that she could have contracted the virus at the ceremony. Her immediate contacts have been isolated and tested. Villupuram now has a total of 40 cases. Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, Arangandanallur town panchayat area has been sealed by blocking Tirukoilur to Villupuram road at railway gate and Devanur Junction road
2. A woman police inspector in Vaniyambadi has tested positive, triggering fears of community transmission. As many as 78 contacts of the officer were traced by authorities. Six of her family members, living in Chidambaram, have been isolated and tested. As she was working in areas where cases have been reported, works are on to trace the chain of transmission
3. A group of students from Rajalakshmi Engineering College have used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help test X-ray samples and detect conditions like COVID-19 and CAP (Community-Acquired Pneumonia). Ashwin Ramesh, who is part of the team, says it’s breakthrough tech. “This is different from the traditional method of testing,” said Ashwin, adding that the tool has a 95.4 per cent testing accuracy. Ashwin says they want to offer the tech free of cost to govt, and his college management is in talks with officials
4. Anna University has announced a national level COVID -19 Bioinformatics Online Hackathon, in which students and faculty members can compete by building an app or a mobile responsive web for Indian states to use during to battle the pandemic. This would mean, participants will have to come up with a platform that is capable of tracking data such as location  of migrant labourers, shelter mapping, volunteer registration and relief collection
5. A group of ambulance and cab drivers from TN have been struck on the Kolkata-Odisha border for about a week now, while returning to Vellore after dropping off patients at various places in north India. When the lockdown came into force, hundreds of patients from the CMC Hospital were stranded and sought help from the district administration to take them home. The vehicles that went to drop them have not been allowed to return, despite having valid documents

Of 54 new cases

Chennai reported 27; Salem, five; Namakkal, four; Dindugal and Virudhunagar, three; Madurai, two; and Chengalpattu, Dharmapuri, Ramnad, Tenkasi, Thanjavur, Tirunelveli, Tirupattur, Tirupur, Tiruvarur, & Villupuram one
case each

The numbers game

908 Active cases in the State currently across hospitals

752 People have recovered and have been discharged

20 Total number of deaths in the State including two on Thursday

1683 Total number of cases reported across Tamil Nadu till date

400 Cases in Chennai alone, the highest in the State, including 27 cases today

Pondy stops TN residents

Tamil Nadu residents will require permission from Puducherry District Collector to enter Puducherry even for non-emergency medical treatment, the union territory announced on Thursday

The Madurai Collector has warned criminal proceedings against anyone living within 16 containment zones in the district if they are found roaming on streets | Arrangements have been made to home deliver essentials to all persons living in containment zones