Tamil Nadu Covid unlock news live: Nilgiris sets up new Covid care helpline

The Nilgiris district recorded 139 positive cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, taking the tally to 27,464. With 381 patients getting discharged from various treatment centres on the day, the number of recovered patients in the hill retreat has shot up to 25,921. Presently, there are 1,391 active Covid-19 case in the district. The Covid toll also rose by two to 152 on the day. Meanwhile, voluntary organizations at Coonoor, in collaboration with the district administration, have launched a Covid care helpline to provide information and guidance to the local citizens on RT-PCR test centres, ambulance services, government and private hospitals treating Covid in the locality, doctor-on-call, home delivery of medicines/groceries/food, vaccination centres, funeral services, and field volunteers to deliver essential goods. READ FULL STORY HERE

Greater Chennai Corporation held a vaccination drive for the 1,200 families of the armed forces on Tuesday at the Army hospital in Fort St George complex. This drive was mainly for dependents of Armed Forces personnel in the 18-44 age group. The drive was inaugurated by Roopa Arun, chairperson, family welfare organisation, Dakshin Bharat area, and corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi. An official told TOI that all armed personnel and soldiers were covered under the government’s vaccination drive. However, their families were not part of the frontline workers group. With new variants cropping up, this vaccination drive by the civic body will benefit dependents. “We are glad that the civic body is vaccinating our family members,” said one personnel.

The Covid-19 recovery rate in the Union Territory of Puducherry has improved to 96% inching towards the national average of 96.6%. Of 1.15 lakh cases reported in the territory, 1.1 lakh patients recovered registering a recovery rate of 95.9%. The territory reported 263 fresh Covid-19 cases even as 415 patients recovered in the last 24 hours ending at 10am on Wednesday bringing down the active cases to 3,058. Of them, 2,535 are under home isolation and treatment. READ FULL STORY

While the Tamil Nadu government has relaxed lockdown rules permitting sports training without spectators in Chennai, Chengalpet, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts of the state, competitive sports activities could take a month to start in Chennai and the adjoining districts. The Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) conducts tournaments in various age groups and also the interstate league but the competitive sport will take time, according to the organisers. A senior TNTA office-bearer while speaking to IANS said, "Government has allowed practice without any spectator while maintaining Covid protocol but the players are spread across the state. It will take time for them to come back to Chennai to participate in training and to increase their fitness level to start playing. There are several local and inter-state tournaments pending and we expect the competitive sports to commence soon and we are at home even without spectators."

The Madras high court on Wednesday directed the Tamil Nadu government to pay Rs 75,000 as an interim compensation to the parents of a newborn, a portion of whose left thumb was cut off by a staff nurse in Thanjavur Government Hospital negligently while removing a paediatric venflon (cannula). The court passed the interim order in a petition filed by M Ganesan, who is the father of the 14-day-old girl child, seeking compensation and proper treatment for the child in a multi-specialty hospital. READ FULL STORY HERE

A total of 1,660 MW of atomic power capacity belonging to Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) has been shut down largely for refuelling and maintenance in Southern India. India's atomic power company NPCIL has a total of 3,320 MW capacity in Tamil Nadu (2,440 MW) and Karnataka (880 MW). The units that are under shutdown are -- Kudankulam Unit 1-1,000 MW; 2 Units of Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS)- 440 MW; Kaiga Atomic Power Station Unit 4-220 MW. (IANS)

Tamil Nadu chief minister, M.K. Stalin is likely to head the state-level temple advisory committee to be constituted in the near future. The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) minister PK Sekar Babu will be the vice-chairman of the committee Sources in the HR&CE department told IANS that the committee would be constituted under Section 7 of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) Act. (IANS)

The social welfare department in the city has invited applications under the Sathiyavani Muthu Ammaiyar Ninaivu free supply of sewing machine scheme from the public. In a press release here, Chennai district collector Dr J Vijaya Rani said that the beneficiaries under the scheme should have an annual income of Rs 72,000 and should be within the age group of 20 years and 40 years. The applications must be submitted before June 25, 2021 at the social welfare office in Singaravelar Maaligai at Chennai Collectorate.

The Greater Chennai Corporation is sending out messages and calling people who have missed their second dose of vaccine due to the unavailability of the jab earlier. The GCC in a statement said that around 85,000 people have missed their second vaccination. The corporation collected the details of such people zone-wise and has commenced calling them personally and through messages. (IANS)

The Tamil Nadu government has invited applications from social workers and NGOs working towards the welfare of persons with disabilities (PwD). In a press release, Chennai district collector Dr J Vijaya Rani said eligible applicants selected by a committee will receive awards from the chief minister on the occasion of the Independence Day. The awards are given under five categories including social worker, NGO, private company and district central co-operative bank.

Passengers headed to board flights at Chennai airport can now catch a glimpse of the new terminal shaping up between the domestic and international terminals. As the building has been completed and more than 70 % of its wavy roofing has been installed, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has started to install glass panels on the facade of the terminal. Roofing work is over on the airside of the building and work has begun on the interior, including on the pillars and ceiling near the space were security check and boarding gates are coming up. READ FULL STORY

Taking pride in its “successful efforts” of containing the spread of Covid-19 in less than two months of taking charge, the DMK government on Tuesday said that it was ready to combat the third wave of the infection, if there is one. The inoculation drive has picked up pace with 1.34 lakh people getting doses a day on an average from 61,441 a day pre-May 7, when the M K Stalin-led DMK government took over, said medical and family welfare minister Ma Subramanian in the assembly on Tuesday. READ FULL STORY

The weekly average Covid-19 test positivity rate (TPR) for Chennai dropped below 2% on Monday, official data from Greater Chennai Corporation revealed. TPR is the number of people testing positive for every 100 tests conducted. Chennai’s weekly average TPR was at 10% for May 25-31 and spiked to 23.13% for May 7-12. Latest data showed that the weekly average TPR for June 15-21 was 1.91%. The last time the average TPR was less than 2% was during the week of March 2-8, when it was at 1.92%. However, the civic body was conducting an average of 10,000-12,000 tests a day at the time, while it conducts 30,000 tests a day at present.

Magimai Santhosh was 17 months old, his sister two and half years old and their mother pregnant with another child when he lost his father. His mother worked for daily wages and later as a noon meal worker to raise them. “My elder sister is now a teacher and my younger sister a police constable,” he said. READ FULL STORY

There is no scientific basis, as of now, to expect or apprehend a third surge of Covid-19, and even less scientific basis to fear that the third wave may attack children more, observed the Madras high court on Tuesday. “However, there were some reports in such regard and it is best that the facilities developed on an emergency basis to deal with the second surge are not dismantled immediately, so that in the event there is a third surge within the next four to six months, the same may be tackled with adequate facilities at hand,” the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said. READ FULL STORY

Police are on the lookout for two men who stole at least Rs 48 lakh from 19 ATMs of the SBI across the state, seven of them within the city. SBI has suspended ATM withdrawals across the country and officials are trying to work out how the men managed to steal the money only from a particular kind of Japanese-made cash deposit machines. In the past three days, the Chennai police have received seven complaints of cash missing from SBI ATMs. Camera footage from the ATM kiosk at Vadapalani showed two suspects, one of them wearing a helmet, withdrawing cash three times, a total of Rs 69,000, on June 19. The incident came to light on Tuesday after the SBI bank officials confirmed Rs 69,000 was unaccounted for. Similar incidents were reported at six SBI ATM kiosks in Velachery, Taramani, Virugambakkam and Ramapuram. All the incidents took place between June 17 and 19. A similar pattern of robberies has also been reported in other states within the last week. READ FULL STORY

A man detained for questioning in a credit card scam died in police custody at the bank fraud wing office located on the city police commissioner office campus around 2.30pm on Tuesday. Vedhachalam’s relative Sundararajan, who accompanied the victim and his wife Hamsa, saw Vedhachalam collapse at the office and rushed him to the Rajiv Gandhi GH in his auto where doctors declared him brought dead. The Vepery police have registered a case of custodial death and referred it for magistrate probe. READ FULL STORY