TN: Cities ramp up facilities to tackle rising caseload

CHENNAI/MADURAI: Tamil Nadu reported 2,516 Covid cases on Tuesday, taking the tally to 64,603 cases, even as Madurai and Theni districts geared up for a complete weeklong lockdown from Wednesday. Chennai accounted for 1,380 of the cases, and for 22 of the 39 total deaths reported during the day. The Statewide toll has now reached 833.

As Chennai continued to be the major contributor to the caseload, with its tally touching 44,205, Corporation Commissioner G Prakash said a new 5,000-bed Covid care centre would be ready for patients with mild symptoms by month-end. After inspecting the facility coming up at a Tamil Nadu Housing Board Tenement in Ambattur, he told reporters, “The tenement has 1,450 apartments and each one will have at least four to five beds.  As many as 450 apartments will be given to doctors, nurses, paramedics and technicians and 1,000 to the patients. About 1,500 beds are being readied at Anna University as well.”

With 137 fresh cases reported in Madurai on Tuesday, the district authorities are all the more determined to tighten the vigil around Madurai corporation limits, Paravai town panchayat and all the village panchayats of Madurai East, Madurai West and Tiruparankundram for the June 24-30 complete lockdown. The area will resemble a “fortress,” with 35 additional checkposts set up to close all pores around these areas. The Madurai Corporation has deployed 1,400 officials to carry out door-to-door survey to identify people with symptoms.