As testing of people has increased over the last few weeks in Madurai, the city is seeing a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, Revenue Minister R. B. Udayakumar said here on Saturday.
After inspecting the infrastructure at the COVID-19 care centre established in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, he said that they have been testing between 1,200 and 2,000 people a day in the last two weeks. “Previously, there was no need to test as many samples,” he said.
The rise in cases or the number of deaths cannot be pinned on any officer and the recovery rates are really high. “Most deaths are because of co-morbidities and not because of COVID-19 alone,” he said.
The Minister said that a total of 1,400 health workers were working on the ground. “We have enough doctors, nurses and other medical staff to deal with the pandemic. We have created COVID-19 care centres and COVID-19 health centres apart from the COVID-19 speciality hospital at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH). We have also created necessary amenities at several hostels which have been offered temporarily to the State Government to fight the disease,” he said.
He added that Madurai Member of Parliament Su. Venkatesan was creating fear among people by asking for records of number of available hospital beds and other infrastructural amenities. “He can assess for himself as we have everything in place. No one needs to wait for a bed,” the Minister said.
Collector T. G. Vinay who was present at the inspection, said that apart from creating health infrastructure, they were also providing psychological care to patients.