No oxygen emergency, but infection spreading rapidly: Ma Subramanian

CHENNAI: Health Minister Ma Subramanian inspected the contact tracing procedures at an apartment in Navalur on Saturday. He said that the cases of Covid-19 are increasing at a fast pace and about 7-8 States in India are reporting more than 1,000 to 5,000 cases. As many as 17,000 cases have been reported in the country in the past 24 hours.

He said that all the affected people are being given necessary medical help and steps to control the spread are being taken. He met the people in home isolation and enquired about their health status. The people in home isolation were directed to not come out of their houses until recovery. The housing complex has more than 1,000 houses and the maintenance workers have been asked to undergo RT-PCR test.

The State Health Department is organising special vaccination camps for the people who are not vaccinated. Health Minister reiterated that out of 5,912 active cases of Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu, 92 percent are in home isolation and 8 percent are being treated in government and private hospitals. Talking about the people admitted to hospitals, health minister said that these patients have mild symptoms such as throat pain headache fever and cold.

Currently, there is no need for oxygen for most of the patients and there is no need for severe medications for the treatment of the patients. He further added that of the 7-8 sub-variants of Omicron, currently BA4 and BA5 sub-variants are active in the State. These sub-variants are highly transmissible in nature and thus, it easily spreads among the family members.

He further said that people should compulsorily wear masks and unvaccinated people should get vaccinated as that is the only way to prevent the spread. The 24 hours vaccination is available in more than 50 places across the State, and the next mega vaccination drive is being conducted on July 10th. After Chennai, Chengalpattu records the highest number of cases of Covid-19 and of the 945 active cases in the district, 10 are hospitalised in government hospitals, 32 in private hospitals, and others are in home isolation.

Regarding the vaccination of children, he said that Corbevax is being administered to children in the age group of 12-14 years and Covaxin is being administered to 15-17 years age group. People aged above 18 years should undertake paid vaccination at private hospitals and we are trying to bring the booster dose vaccination under the CSR activity of the private hospitals.