Record single-day surge of 5k COVID-19 cases in TN, govt sets up plasma bank

The government inaugurated the plasma bank at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here with ruling AIADMK MLA N Sathan Prabhakar, who recovered from COVID-19, becoming the first donor at the facility. Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar appealed to the people to come forward and donate plasma to save lives while asserting that the state has done far better in managing COVID-19 compared to other states and even some developed nations.

The daily coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu soared to a new record high of 5,849 on Wednesday, taking the tally to 1,86,492 while the state government inaugurated its first plasma bank and appealed to the recovered people to donate blood and save lives. The day also saw the death toll mounting to 3,144 with the addition of 74 fatalities, the health department said.

On the positive side, recoveries rose to 1,31,583 with 4,910 people getting cured, it said. The government inaugurated the plasma bank at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here with ruling AIADMK MLA N Sathan Prabhakar, who recovered from COVID-19, becoming the first donor at the facility.

Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar appealed to the people to come forward and donate plasma to save lives while asserting that the state has done far better in managing COVID-19 compared to other states and even some developed nations. The state continued with its aggressive testing of samples with 60,112 specimens being examined, pushing the tally to 20,95,757.

The health department bulletin said of the total deaths, 444 of them, reported in the past over four months, were notified after a report was submitted by the death reconciliation committee constituted by the state government to tally a possible mismatch earlier. According to Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, the nine- member committee formed by the health department to streamline Covid-19 fatalities assessed all the deaths suspected to be linked to the infection in the city.

Subsequently, the death toll in the state capital stood at 1,939 while that of the state rose to 3,144. The committee recommended that the 444 deaths would also fall under the category of Covid-19 deaths as per the ICMR guidelines 'though such cases were medically considered to have died due to comorbidity or other terminal illness".

Radhakrishnan said, "The committee, in consonance with the guidelines issued by WHO and the Central government, found that 444 deaths occurred from March 1 till mid-July". The number of recoveries on Wednesday remained significant as 4,910 people were cured and discharged, taking the total number of those free of the infection in the state to 1,31,583.

The number of active cases as on today stood at 51,765 (including those in isolation), the bulletin said. Among the 5,849 new cases, as many as 74 of them were returnees from domestic and overseas locations.

The bulletin also said that six of those who died were without any comorbidity condition. A 23-year old man from Madurai with chronic kidney disease died due to acute respiratory distress syndrome at the Government hospital. An 85 year old succumbed to COVID-19 pneumonia in a private hospital in Madurai.

Chennai reported 1,171 new COVID-19 positive cases on Wednesday, pushing the count to 89,561. Districts continued to witness a hike in the number of new cases with neighbouring Thiruvallur reporting 430 new cases.

Ranipet 414, Virudhunagar 363, Kancheepuram 325 were some of the few to witness a sharp increase in the number of new cases, the bulletin said. Announcing the launch of plasma bank, the Health Minister tweeted: "The first #PlasmaBank in TN was dedicated for the state today. Health Secretary, Dean (RGGH) and officials were present. Plasma retrieval will be done in 30 minutes, stored at 40 degree Celsius and used for COVID patients. Come forward and donate plasma. Together lets save lives".

Later, he said Tamil Nadu cannot be compared with other states in the country in terms of testing or treating the COVID-19 patients or some of the developed nations that were 'struggling' to provide beds to COVID-19 patients. He said over 20 lakh RT-PCR tests have been conducted in the state.

The state, he said had now the capability to conduct 50,000 tests per day and has successfully treated about 1.21 lakh COVID-19 patients so far. "You can't compare Tamil Nadu with New Delhi which has conducted about 5,000 viral antigen tests. We have performed over 20 lakh RT-PCR (Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction) confirmatory test to identify COVID-19 cases," he said.

Due to the war-footing measures initiated by chief minister K Palaniswami, the state had upscaled testing facilities besides enhanced the infrastructure at all the government hospitals. "As a result, we have about 50 per cent beds available (in excess) at the government hospitals and 80 per cent at the state quarantine facilities... some well-developed countries are struggling to provide beds but here our government, ministers and officials are engaged in improving facilities, conducting fever camps and conducting door surveillance for early detection and treatment," he said.

Further, 'Solidarity Trial' to help identify treatment options for Covid-19 patients (at Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital, Omandurar Estate, and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital) is progressing successfully. The study has four treatment arms, including Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir with Ritonavir (anti- retrovirals), and Lopinavir with Ritonavir and Interferon Beta 1a.

"We have adequate stock of these drugs at all the government hospitals and we are also providing the medicines to corporate hospitals," Vijaya Bhaskar said..