On a day when Tamil Nadu recorded its highest-ever daily death toll due to COVID-19 so far, the State government on Friday reviewed the prevailing situation and instructed District Collectors to go for focused intervention such as organising fever camps. The Collectors were also told to boost health infrastructure and recruit adequate medical staff.
Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam chaired a videoconference of District Collectors at the Secretariat and reviewed the status of COVID-19 cases and the steps being taken in each district to contain the spread. “The Chief Secretary asked us to map the disease spread and go for focused interventions like fever camps and awareness-building exercises, clear the backlog in obtaining results and take care of health infrastructure. By and large, the Collectors are focused [on the issue], and the number [of cases] is expected to come down in a few days,” a senior official who was present at the meeting told The Hindu.
The Chief Secretary instructed the Collectors to carry out “adequate testing”, i.e., 10 times the average case load. “If the [number of] positive cases were 100 the previous day in a specific district, he advised the Collector concerned to test at least 1,000 samples the following day,” the official said. Another officer said the Collectors were instructed to look at ways to exercise better control over containment zones and in the buffer areas to curtail the spread and distribute immunity-boosting products in these areas, besides improving enforcement in market areas and crowded spaces.
“The idea is to strategically locate the fever camps, make the staff accountable and plan for increasing care centre capacity once they reach 75% utilisation. Some Collectors wanted to appoint lab technicians. They were instructed to conduct walk-in interviews and select and appoint technicians for three or six months,” he said.
Director-General of Police J.K. Tripathy, Revenue Secretary Atulya Misra, Commissioner of Revenue Administration K. Phanindra Reddy, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan, Commissioner of Greater Chennai Corporation G. Prakash, managing director of the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation P. Umanath and Chennai Police Commissioner Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal were among those who took part in the meeting.