Case doubling time is 65 days in Chennai: Minister – The Hindu

The doubling time of COVID-19 cases is 65 days in Chennai and 100 days in a few zones of the city, Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar said on Tuesday.

“The curve is flattening. Aggressive testing, early diagnosis and integrated treatment has helped. We are continuing to take steps to prevent disease transmission from a person, who has tested positive, to his/her family members and to others,” he told journalists here.

The Minister pointed out that the government had created one testing facility in every district and put 28,92,395 samples through the RT-PCR confirmatory test. There are 125 testing centres. “Recently, the State was appreciated for the lowest turn-around time in testing. We have created [the required] infrastructure to declare the test results in 24 hours,” he said.

Mr. Vijayabaskar said 2,08,784 persons had so far been discharged from hospitals. “Multi-disciplinary efforts have helped in achieving a recovery rate of 77.8% in the State.” He noted that 57 patients were successfully treated with the convalescent plasma therapy.

He said there were 1.18 lakh beds across the State, and the majority of them were converted into oxygen-supported beds at a cost of ₹76 crore.

“COVID-19 treatment facility is not only available at the district headquarters hospitals and government medical college hospitals but also at the village level, at the taluk and non-taluk hospitals,” he said.

“We have been insisting that spreading of rumours on social media during the pandemic is an offence. Unauthentic information that 43 doctors have died of COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu is being spread, and this is false information,” he said.

Flays Udhayanidhi

He condemned DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin for tweeting this information.

“The Indian Medical Association, Tamil Nadu, has clarified that this was not authentic information and it has not released any such figures,” he said. The Health Minister warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading false information.

He stressed the need for people to adhere to physical distancing and wear masks and seek medical help immediately after symptoms emerged.