Tightening of restrictions in containment areas, non-essential activities : Health Secretary

Urging folks to not imagine rumours on a complete lockdown after polling for Assembly election on April 6, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan on Monday stated restrictions will definitely be tightened in COVID-19 containment areas.

“Some steps should be taken without affecting the public and with public cooperation to avoid an out-of-control situation like Maharashtra. Of the 4.5 lakh areas, there are 925 containment areas that had more than three COVID-19 positive cases. Restrictions will be tightened in these areas. We will have focus volunteers and take up complete testing,” he informed reporters shortly after an inspection on the State Vaccine Store.

As far as non-essential activities have been involved, he stated that folks ought to be taught to keep away from crowding in funerals, marriages and cultural occasions, and keep away from pointless travels.

Starting April 7, the day after polling, he stated that door-to-door fever surveillance in containment areas and screening centres for triaging of COVID-19 optimistic sufferers could be taken up in full swing.

Masks should at polling cubicles

“The Election Commission and Chief Electoral Officer had asked the Health department to take up COVID-19 related arrangements for polling. All measures to ensure safe polling have been completed. In particular, we are ensuring cleaning of each booth, and availability of hand sanitisers, face shields for polling staff, surgical face masks, single use rubber gloves for voters, PPE kits for patients with COVID-19 and infrared thermometers,” he stated.

All individuals ought to mandatorily put on masks when coming to vote with out anticipating masks to be made out there on the polling venues. The District Election Officers have made preparations to make sure bodily distancing on the venues.

COVID-19 optimistic sufferers can solid their votes from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on polling day, whereas these discovered having excessive temperature on screening could be issued tokens to come back and vote between 6 p.m. and seven p.m.

Rising circumstances

Noting that there have been over one lakh COVID-19 circumstances in India on Sunday, he stated that in Tamil Nadu, the circumstances have been rising steadily however when in comparison with Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Punjab, the positivity fee was not that prime. “Nevertheless, the numbers are slightly alarming and we have crossed 3,500 cases a day. There is continuous monitoring, and we are ensuring that there is no lacunae in testing, tracking and isolation. A minimum of 20 to 30 contacts of a positive patient are being traced, tested and isolated,” he stated.

One of the principle challenges was home to deal with fever surveillance in containment areas, he stated, including: “Starting April 7, we will take up house to house fever surveillance in containment areas in full swing. We did not carry out the same to avoid creating confusion during election time. The field-level teams in each of the 15 zones of Greater Chennai Corporation and monitoring teams at the district-level are in place,” he stated

The Health Secretary stated that COVID-19 Care Centres have been began in all districts. Taking into consideration the 5 hospitals in Chennai – Government Corona Hospital, Government Medical College Hospital, Omandurar Estate, Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, Government Stanley Medical College Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, a complete of 1,869 individuals have been admitted, whereas the full mattress capability was 4,368. “Persons are directly going to the Government Corona Hospital. Those with mild symptoms can go to CCCs. After April 7, we will have 10 screening centres from the present three for triaging patients. Not all patients need to be treated in hospitals and doctors will decide on that,” he stated.

Vaccination

Another space of concern was vaccination. The State has thus far obtained practically 54 lakh doses of the vaccines however the take-off was low, he stated, including, “On Sunday, we had solely round 15,000 individuals coming for the vaccination whilst our healthcare employees have been working full-fledged and we had over 400 vaccination centres.’

He stated the availability from the Centre relied on three-day common utilisation. “The disease is on the rise. All those above 45 years should take the vaccine. We could not promote vaccination on campaign mode due to the model code of conduct. However, after April 7, we will take up this on a campaign mode to motivate people who are eligible to get vaccinated… Some might get infected after vaccination. It is said to have 70 to 85% efficacy 14 days after the second dose. In such cases, it will not be a severe COVID-19,” he stated.

Noting that vaccine hesitancy continued in the State, he stated that neighbouring States of Kerala and Karnataka had extra takers than TN. The common capability of a vaccination centre was 100 individuals a day. On a median, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and Government Medical College Hospital, Omandurar Estate vaccinate as much as 500 individuals a day however in many cities, districts and rural elements, solely 25 to 40 individuals are vaccinated, he stated.

“The Centre’s supply of additional doses depended on the three-day average utilisation. States that have higher utilisation such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are getting more vaccines supplied. There is a view that we are not utilising the already supplied vaccines,” he stated.

Noting that Tamil Nadu was among the many high 10 mannequin States, he stated, “TN, like Maharashtra, is a highly urbanised State. The only difference is that we do 100% RT-PCR testing and contact tracing. But we must take up vaccination.”

So far, 4.25 lakh doses of Covaxin and 28.30 lakh doses of Covishield have been utilised, he stated. The State has until now obtained 7.8 lakh doses of Covaxin and 47.43 lakh doses of Covishield.

Test postivity

Daily evaluation until April 4 confirmed that Chennai’s take a look at positivity fee was 8.01%, Ranipet 7.39%, Theni 6.85%, Coimbatore 6.17%, Chengalpattu 5.53%, Tiruvannamalai 5.38% and Salem 5.07%.

“Except for these seven districts, the remaining have a lesser positivity rate. As per Centre’s direction, we should bring down the positivity rate to below 5%. We should do additional tests for which fever camps will come in handy. The Greater Chennai Corporation on an average conducts 500 camps a day, while in districts, 100 camps will be held where additional tests will be carried out. Attention will be given to all other districts with above 2% positivity rate. Only Tirupattur has below 2% positivity rate,” he stated.

Due to lack of adherence of SOPs comparable to checking for temperature and hand hygiene in locations such because the service sector, the illness was spreading from one particular person to many. “Elections were a challenge, but do not assume that cases would drop after April 6. We have had cases through banks, service sectors and training centres,” he stated. He famous that although colleges have been closed, coaching centres have been being run illegally.

Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine T. S. Selvavinayagam was current.