Covid threat still looms as TN slowly traverses 8 lakh-mark like ‘the tortoise in race’

CHENNAI: With 1,141 fresh cases reported on Monday, Tamil Nadu becomes the fourth State to right eight lakh Covid-19 cases. The othere three are Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.Director of Public Health Dr TS Selvavinayagam said the State has recorded so many cases only because of continued surveillance.

“The State has been witnessing a continuous decline in cases for the past two months and now the focus is on how quickly we are going to reduce the number further,” he told Express. He added that all educational institutions have been asked to follow Covid-19 protocols strictly. Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan said, in a pandemic, the absolute number of cases cannot be ignored but what’s important to note is, the active number of cases, fatality, test positivity and hospital occupancy as well.

“We have maintained the active cases below 10,500 for a while and other parameters also are in check,” he said. In Chennai, active cases are now at 1.4 per cent with only 3,153 people undergoing treatment out of the total 2,20,211 cases. The city has been recording less than 400 cases in the recent past and corporation officials said they have downsized the staff deployed for door-to-door surveys.