COVID-19: One more death, 69 new cases reported in TN

(Eds: Adds details) Chennai, Apr 7 () A 64-year old woman died of COVID-19in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday taking the toll due to the disease toseven in the state while 69 more people tested positive as thetally rose to 690, a top health department official said.As many as 63 of the new cases were returnees of TablighiJamaat congregation in Delhi, taking their total among thepositive cases in the state to 636, Health Secretary BeelaRajesh said. Asked if the state government has recommended extensionof the 21-day COVID-19 national lockdown to the Centre, shesaid the matter was being looked into and the "government willtake a decision." The woman, who died at the Rajiv Gandhi GovernmentGeneral Hospital here, had co-morbid conditions likehypertension and diabetes, she said. "A resident of Chennai, she was in the hospital for onlyabout one-and-a-half-hour and we are tracing her contacts,"the official said adding she hailed from a "high risk" area. However, she did not name the locality from where thewoman hailed. With this, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the state hasrisen to seven. 'Death audit' that looked into reasons surroundingfatalities was being done and an expert committe comprisinggovernment and private doctors recommended strengthening oftreatment and monitoring protocols and death prevention is akey goal, she said. Of the new positive cases, as many as 63 were returneesof the jamaat meet held in Delhi's Nizamuddin area recently,she said. As regards the six others, three belong to a singlefamily, one had a history of inter-state travel, another acontact background with an international traveller and thesource of one person was being traced, she said. Out of the 1,630 Jamaat meet attendees, 636 have testedpositive and 961 negative and 33 samples was under process,she said. "More samples from them are being taken and they arecoming voluntarily," the Health Secretary said. About 66,000 people are under home quarantine whichincludes those with international travel history, she said. As many as 19 people have been discharged so far followingrecovery, she said. A government bulletin showed Chennai continuing to top thelist of infected in Tamil Nadu with 149 cases followed byCoimbatore (60) and Dindigul (45). The least affected districts include Perambalur andAriyalur which have one case each. The official said testing facility has been expanded withthe addition of two more centres -- one at government-run IRTPerundurai Medical College Hospital in Erode District andanother a privatelab. Tamil Nadu now has 11 labs in government and six inprivate sectors. About 14,000 testing kits from the National Institute ofVirology, Pune, were now available with the government andmore have been ordered, she said. Micro-level planning, which includes GIS mapping with thehelp of the state-run Anna University, was being done to go infor 'rapid testing' across Tamil Nadu on arrival of kits (fromChina), she said. Chief Minister K Palaniswami had on Monday announcedprocurement of one lakh testing kits from China. Containment initiatives have been expanded to 34districts covering 15 lakh households and about 53 lakh peoplewere being screened by deploying over 30,000 filed personnel,the official added. VGNVS VS