T.N. Still In Second Stage Of Pandemic

The phenomenon of a cluster of cases has not started here yet: Health Minister

- Ramya Kannan

Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar, a qualified medical professional himself, has been leading from the front in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly a month after the first positive case of SARS-CoV-2 was detected in the State, he discusses the stage of the pandemic in Tamil Nadu, the containment, treatment and preparatory measures that have been set in motion, and future preparedness. Excerpts:

There seems to be a great deal of apprehension about whether Tamil Nadu has entered the third stage of the pandemic — community transmission…

We are still at stage 2 — local transmission. We are working really hard to stop / slow down the progress to stage 3, or community transmission, where the source of infection cannot be traced. So far, in all but one case, we have traced the infection back to people who have tested positive or those with travel/contact history. We have also doubled our containment efforts in areas where positive cases have been found, by marking out an area around the house/ place where the patient is staying. We are also engaged in aggressive case detection. This will help in ensuring that the infection does not spread.