Tamil Nadu Covid lockdown news live: Differently-abled people seek doorstep jab in Trichy

Even as persons with disabilities (PwD) were recognised as a high-risk group and given preference in the Covid-19 vaccination under way for 18-44 years age group, differently-abled people in Trichy are apprehensive over visiting camps due to the crowd. Citing lack of disabled-friendly amenities at the camp locations and the need to rely on family or friends to visit the camps, PwDs have sought doorstep vaccination for them. About 24,000 of the 64,000 PwDs in the district are in the 18-44 age group. Though they can get vaccinated at any camp, not many have been turning up. They say most of their caretakers are their parents, who as senior citizens are vulnerable to Covid. Also, since they are immunocompromised, PwDs express fears over the ambience and lack of ramps at the centres.

Till a few months before the pandemic struck, A Raja was a well-paid mechanic at a shipyard in Singapore. He left all that behind and returned to his native city and drove an autorickshaw to earn a livelihood. Now, an auto driver-turned-multipurpose hospital worker, the 30-year-old has been providing free rides to Covid-19 infected people for the past two weeks. READ FULL STORY

Amid the second wave that brings with it a flood of stories of despair, a determined tribe of humanitarians are churning out a counter-narrative of hope, unity and resilience. These citizens have risen to the occasion, and ensured no one on the road goes hungry or unmasked. READ FULL STORY

Three days after the district administration and Trichy Corporation launched the sales of vegetables and fruits through mini-load vehicles and push carts, many residential localities complained that the vehicles are not reaching residential streets. The vendors, despite having passes for selling vegetables during the lockdown, are stationing their vehicles on arterial roads, which eventually attracts crowd. READ FULL STORY

The city corporation is every day identifying more than 7,500 people with symptoms of fever, cold and cough and subjecting them to Covid-19 tests. On Thursday, 5,757 people with such symptoms were identified by fever surveillance workers going door to door, 1,444 were spotted at fever camps and 370 were detected at private hospitals. Of these, swabs of 7,450 patients were sent for Covid-19 testing and they have all been issued medical kit.

From truck drivers carrying essential commodities to homeless people, a group of 20 youths from Sinthalakarai village has been feeding more than 300 people every day over the last two weeks by standing and offering food packets at the Madurai-Tuticorin national highway near Ettayapuram in Tuticorin district. They prepare two varieties of rice every day and give the beneficiary the privilege to choose. READ FULL STORY

Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin on Thursday asked the collectors of six districts where the impact of Covid-19 was not adequately contained to take every effort to curb the spread in the next couple of weeks. Later in the evening, Stalin appointed senior IAS officers to coordinate Covid preventive measures in Coimbatore, Tirupur and Erode districts. M Siddique has been deputed for Coimbatore, C Samayamoorthy for Tirupur, while R Selvaraj Erode. The chief minister held a virtual meeting with the collectors of Coimbatore, Tirupur, Madurai, Trichy, Salem and Erode. Chief secretary V Irai Anbu and other senior bureaucrats also attended the video-conference. “Keep in mind that the success of the activities we undertake in these six districts is essential to contain the impact of the second wave of Covid in the state,” the chief minister told the collectors, directing them to take up all efforts in full swing.

Covid-19 vaccination gained momentum across the state on Thursday due to the fresh supply of stocks and people waited in long queues to get the jab. Across the state, more than 3 lakh were vaccinated on Thursday, with the majority being people from the 18-44 years age category. READ FULL STORY HERE

Tamil Nadu is working with the Centre and vaccine manufacturers such as Bharat Biotech to use two facilities in the state for manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines. While it has reached out to the Union government to operationalize the integrated vaccine (IVC) park in Chengalpet expeditiously, it’s also lobbying for starting production at the refurbished Centre-owned Pasteur Institute in Coonoor. READ FULL STORY

By 7pm, 3,23,915 had received the vaccine on Thursday. This included 2,58,694 people in the18-44 years age group, taking the vaccine tally in the group to 7,29,607 in just five days. At least 16,822 senior citizens and 45,330 people above 45 years of age took the vaccine on Thursday.

Though cases in Chennai dropped below the 3,000-mark, the city reported 79 deaths, followed by 52 in Chengalpet and 34 in Tirupur. “The deaths we see now are among people who tested positive at least a week ago,” said Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital dean Dr E Theranirajan. Though the case fatality has come down, there is an increase in the absolute number of deaths this wave. Until February, there were 12,496 deaths among 8.5 lakh cases. Between April and May, the state has added another 10.9 lakh cases and 9,319 deaths. “Most patients who died sought treatment late. Many youngsters were infected this wave. They ignore symptoms and many had compromised lungs at the time of admission,” he said. On Thursday, barring Kallakurichi, Pudukottai and Perambalur, all districts reported deaths.

Besides Coimbatore, western districts Tirupur (2,074), Erode (1,699) and Salem (987) also continued to report a high number of cases taking the total number of new cases in the region to11,584. The eight western districts reported nearly 35% of the fresh cases in Tamil Nadu on Thursday. The northern districts together reported 10,275 cases, including 6,143 in the Chennai region. As a result, most ICU and ventilator beds in the region were occupied throughout the day, pushing waiting time for beds up to ten hours. Trichy (2,627) in the central region and Madurai (1,395) also continued to report a high number of fresh cases. At least 22 districts reported more than 500 fresh infections, and nine reported cases in four digits. With 173 new cases, Sivaganga had the lowest number of fresh cases in the state.

Tamil Nadu reported 474 deaths on Thursday even as fresh cases dropped further to 33,361 compared to 33,764 on Wednesday. For the second consecutive day, hotspot Coimbatore reported more cases than Chennai. The western district logged 4,734 cases, nearly double the number of 2,779 cases reported in Chennai. The state capital, however, registered 79 deaths – highest in the state on Thursday. After discharging more than 30,000 patients from the registry, the state had 3.13 lakh people fighting the infection. The cumulative toll touched 22,289 and the case tally touched19.78 lakh on Thursday.

Two members of a fundamentalist organisation, who are serving jail term in Chennai’s Puzhal Central Prison, have tested positive for Covid-19 and have been admitted to the corona ward of Government Stanley Hospital (GSH).

Southern Railway (SR) on Thursday announced cancellation of additional train services and extension of the temporary cancellation of a few train services that are in effect due to a drop in patronage as a result of the stringent lockdown in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Thursday asked the collectors of six districts, where the impact of Covid-19 was not adequately contained, to take every effort in the next couple of weeks to curb the spread.

The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday invited non-government organisations, volunteers and corporates to register themselves with the government for Covid-19 relief work.