Chennai remains hotspot with 176 new cases

To focus efforts on city, govt. appoints J. Radhakrishnan as Special Nodal Officer

02/05/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

A worker sprinkles bleaching powder at a containment zone in Chennai.K. Pichumani

With Chennai remaining Tamil Nadu’s COVID-19 epicentre, registering 176 of the 203 fresh cases on Friday, the State government chose to pay focused attention to the capital city, appointing senior IAS officer J. Radhakrishnan as Special Nodal Officer to coordinate issues relating to the pandemic. Five senior IPS officers will support him.

With the 176 fresh cases, the city’s tally of COVID-19 cases surpassed the 1,000-mark.

The State’s COVID-19 case count stands at 2,526* (1,670 men and 856 women), of which 1,183 are active cases.

Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar said the maximum number of samples were lifted in Chennai. “We lifted 3,200 samples in the city, of which 176 returned positive for COVID-19,” he added.

A 98-year-old man, who was admitted to the Government Medical College Hospital, Omandurar Estate, died due to COVID-19 at 10.20 a.m. on Friday despite receiving intensive care at the hospital. This took the COVID-19 toll in the State to 28, he said.

Among the 203 new cases (117 men and 86 women), Chengalpattu accounted for eight cases, while Tiruvallur had six.

There were three patients in Madurai, two each in Kancheepuram and Thanjavur, and one each in Ariyalur, Cuddalore, Dindigul, Karur, Nagapattinam and Villupuram.

Mr. Radhakrishnan, who is currently Principal Secretary and Commissioner for Revenue Administration, Disaster Management and Mitigation, told The Hindu:“We will try our best to work hard to ensure that we are able to get to a COVID-19-free Chennai. We will work with the entire team and the common people and work on how to address this.”

He said suggestions and inputs from officers will be considered to tackle the spread of COVID-19. A former Health Secretary, he will be supported by senior IPS officers Mahesh Kumar Agarwal (in charge of Chennai North Zone), Abash Kumar (East Zone), Amaresh Pujari (South Zone), Abhay Kumar Singh (West Zone) and K. Bhavaneeswari (Chennai suburbs).

As on Friday, Chennai’s cumulative tally of COVID-19 cases stood at 1,082, while Chengalpattu accounted for 86 cases