Chennai: A team, deputed by the Central government to assess the COVID-19 situation in Tamil Nadu, met Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Friday and discussed the strategy to contain the spread of the virus.


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State Health Minister Dr C Vijaya Bhaskar and Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan briefed the team on the strategies adopted to contain the pandemic and the steps taken to ramp up the testing for COVID-19.


Chief Secretary K Shanmugham and senior officials too participated in the meeting. Measures of treatment taken to improve the recovery rate were also explained at the meeting. 


With this, the five-member team, led by Union Health Ministry's additional secretary Aarti Ahuja, wrapped up the three-day visit. The team had appreciated the state government's measures to combat the coronavirus and also the untiring efforts of the frontline health workers in treating the infected, official sources have said.


The visit had come at a time when Chennai saw a drop in the number of COVID-19 cases, though the number of containment zones increased from 158 on July 3 to 276 on July 10.


According to Greater Chennai Corporation, Teynampet zone has the greatest number of containment zones at 134 as on July 10 followed by Tondiarpet with 50 and Anna Nagar with 38.


Total COVID-19 positive cases in the state stand around 1,26,581, which includes 46,655 active cases & 1,765 deaths. 


Chennai is still a hotspot, although the situation has improved. The mortality rate is low at 1.39%, according to the Union Health Ministry.


As of July 9, the city reported a total of 73,728 positive cases. About 52,287 have recovered while active cases remain at 20,271 cases and 1,169 have died.