Senior leaders from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) protested seeking a minimum of 3,000 tests to be conducted in Madurai district to determine the accurate number of those infected.

CPI (M) Member of Parliament Su. Venkatesan, DMK MLAs P. Moorthy and P. Saravanan took part in the protest apart from other party functionaries.

MP Su. Venkatesan said it was a necessity to follow the ‘Test, identify, cure and contain’ strategy to tackle the disease. “Without testing, people may very well be infecting several others and we might have no idea about it,” he said.

He said according to data published in the State government bulletin, Madurai had only conducted 14,102 tests until June 7. This number is abysmally low, he said. “The Collector says that 16,220 tests had been conducted until then but not updated on the Indian Centre for Medical Research’s portal. This makes us question how many deaths and patients too are yet to be uploaded,” he said.

The leaders called for a special monitoring officer to be appointed for Madurai district as well.

Mr. Venkatesan said that officials must also ensure that home quarantining of returnees from Chennai is carefully followed and documented. “It is said that around 30,000 people have travelled via road from Chennai but only 5,000 have been tested. This is a matter of concern,” he said.