Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Sunday said Tamil Nadu had the highest recovery rate among COVID-19 patients in the country and the lowest number of deaths in the world. This, he said, was thanks to the combined efforts of the government and the people, who had extended their support to the lockdown rules.

In an eight-page statement detailing the measures taken by the government for the benefit of the public, industries and farmers since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Palaniswami repeatedly referred to the precautionary measures taken by his regime. The Chief Minister’s statement comes at a time when the State’s case count has been surging and has already crossed the 30,000-mark. Tamil Nadu has reported over 1,000 cases a day for the past one week. Chennai alone accounted for nearly 21,000 cases, as of June 6. “Even before the virus entered Tamil Nadu, our State had set an example for the country and had taken several measures. When we came to know of the spread of the virus in China, as early as in January, I ordered that stringent precautionary measures should be taken immediately. When our first case was detected on March 7, multiple measures were taken immediately to prevent its spread,” he said.

The CM said Tamil Nadu’s testing rate for COVID-19 patients was higher than most other States. “As of June 4, we had tested more than 5.50 lakh samples. It was due to the high testing rate that we were able to ascertain that 86% of those infected were asymptomatic. Since we understood this, we were able to take various measures to prevent the spread of the virus,” he said.

He listed various steps taken by the government with the help of sanitation workers, local bodies and district officials, including the creation of additional healthcare facilities.

Notwithstanding the measures being taken by the government, the Chief Minister said that without the people’s support, it would not be possible to defeat COVID-19. He requested everyone to maintain physical distancing, wear a mask while outdoors, step outside only for essential purposes and follow a healthy diet.