With 70,000 beds, TN ready to tackle third wave: Health Minister

The Health Minister, who visited Thanajvur, one of the badly-hit districts by COVID in the Central region, for an inspection of the medical college, said that in addition to the existing beds, a COVID treatment centre with 220 ordinary and 80 oxygen supported beds have been set up in a month in Thanjavur Medical College Hospital and the number of cases have come down to 500 from 1,196 in the last 10 days, he informed.

Referring to the information about possibility of a third wave outbreak, the Health Minister allayed the fears of the people and said that the state was well equipped to face it and more than 70,000 beds have been kept ready. Also, special pediatric wards have been opened in all government hospitals and medical colleges across the state, he added.

Stating that 1.10 crore vaccines have been received so far, the Minister said among the received doses 1.05 crore have been utilised. This apart 6.16 lakh vaccines were received on Tuesday and distributed to all the districts. “The Prime Minister has announced that vaccines from seven firms would be readied by June 21 and this will help Tamil Nadu in administering as many doses as possible. Since the awareness of vaccination has increased among the people, the state government is committed to get the required volume of doses from the Centre,” the Minister added.

About the black fungus disease, the Minister said that as many as 1,236 persons have been affected by the disease in the state so far and the state government requested 45,000 doses of the drug used to treat mucormycosis, but has received only 10,000 so far. “At the same time, we have been equipped with alternate medicines too,” the Minister said.

Pointing out that the strict implementation of lockdown had resulted in the decline in cases in the state, the Minister said, “The death rate, which stood over 400 per day has been gradually climbing down and we are keen to make TN a zero death state.” Subramanian also said that he has been inspecting all the primary health centres, taluk and government hospitals and studying the shortages that would be rectified in consultation with the Chief Minister, he assured.

School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, Government Chief Whip Kovi Chezhian, Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan and others accompanied him.