Tamil Nadu: Health Minister inspects Covid-19 preparedness, urges people not to panic

There were 1,75,291 hospital beds in Tamil Nadu - both in government and private sector, and out of these 1,14,471 were earmarked for Covid-19 patients.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Tuesday called upon state government hospitals to ensure that they are prepared for any Covid-19 cases surge and to report on their preparedness to the state Health Department in 24 hours. Speaking to media persons after inspecting the mock drill for Covid-19 preparedness at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here, he assured the people of the state that the state had adequate beds and oxygen and that there was no need for any panic. The Union Health Ministry had directed all the state governments to conduct a mock drill on Tuesday to ensure the availability of hospital beds, oxygen concentrators, and liquid medical oxygen tanks.

Subramanian said that the Union Health Ministry had given an advisory to the state health departments that government medical college hospitals, district hospitals, taluk, and non-taluk hospitals should be instructed to have a proper assessment of their infrastructure and report back to the state Health Department.

The advisory came following the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in countries like China, Japan, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, and Brazil. He said that Tamil Nadu was reporting fewer than 10 Covid-19 cases a day for the last 20 days and added that there were 51 active cases in the state in the last 24 hours.

He also said that since December 25, the state Health Department had conducted tests on persons coming directly or in transit from China, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong who have reached Tamil Nadu airports, and of the around 500 international travellers tested under the two percent random testing rule, no one tested positive for Covid-19.

The minister said that there were 1,75,291 hospital beds in Tamil Nadu - both in the government and private sector and out of these 1,14,471 were earmarked for Covid-19 patients. He also said that the present oxygen capacity in the state was 1,954 metric tonnes, while the requirement of oxygen during peak Covid-19 was only 400 metric tonnes.

(With inputs from IANS)