Chennai, May 3 () A 44-year-old man died ofcoronavirus in Tamil Nadu, taking the toll in the state to 30as the number of positive cases crossed the 3,000-mark with266 more getting infected by the virus on Sunday.
The man from Coimbatore became the latest victim to thecontagion, a bulletin from the health department said.
The state capital continued to contribute the major chunkof COVID-19 cases at 203, the bulletin said.
As many as 266 fresh COVID-19 cases were confirmed in thestate, taking the aggregate to 3,023, it said.
Tamil Nadu has been witnessing an increase in thepositive cases since last week as the government machineryenhanced testing facilities to identify the COVID-19 cases. According to health department, the government districtheadquarters hospital in Ramanathapuram district and a privatehospital in Chennai were added to the list of existing testingcentres taking the total number of such facilities operatingin the state to 49. The number of samples tested on Sunday stood at 10,617while 37,206 people were in home quarantine and 40 ingovernment facilities.
As many as 38 people were discharged after treatment onSunday alone taking the cumulative to 1,379 in the state. Of the new positive cases, 187 were men and the remainingwomen patients.
Eight people below the age of 10 years were among thoseinfected.
Earlier, senior IAS officer J Radhakrishnan, appointed asSpecial Nodal Officer for Greater Chennai Corporation, toldreporters that people were found to be 'negligent' by notwearing masks and appealed to them to extend their support tothe government's measures in order to control the spread ofvirus.
The former Health secretary recalled that during aninspection he undertook in North Chennai, he was able to seepeople moving around without masks. "Wearing the mask is not only for your protection butalso helps prevent the spread of virus," he said.
The government is taking aggressive testing and that iswhy we are able to see high positive cases. People shouldextend their cooperation" he told reporters.
Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash, whowas also present, said marriage halls within the city limitswould be used to accommodate COVID-19 patients. "There are government and private schools, which comeunder our purview. Besides, there are about 750 marriage hallsin Chennai and they will be taken over by us... it is anational emergency. We will be adding more beds for the coronapatients," he said.
Elaborating, the top official said, "It will be a simpleand effective strategy so that serious COVID-19 patients wouldbe taken to the hospitals, while mild cases and thoserequiring rest will be quarantined at the facilities set up atschools and marriage halls." "It is for this purpose we are planning to procure 50,000beds, of which 4,000 were already set up..," he said. VIJROH ROH