Lok Sabha Question No. 925 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-18
Subject: Corona Cases in Tamil Nadu
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: D. M. Kathir Anand, V. Kalanidhi, Ganesan Selvam, C.N. Annadurai

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 925 TO BE ANSWERED ON 18 th SEPTEMBER, 2020

## CORONA CASES IN TAMI L NADU

## 925. SHRI D.M. KATHIR ANAND:

SHRI SELVAM G.:

DR.KALANIDHI VEERASWAMY:

SHRI C.N. ANNADURAI:

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

- (a) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to manage/control the pandemic within the countryalong  with  the  health  infrastructure  and  health facilities  set  up  for  COVID - 19 management inTamil Nadu;
- (b) whether the cases are increasing in the country especiall  in Tamil Nadu and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government has made any assessment of the medical facilities including poor hospital facilities available in the country to treat Corona patients; and
- (d)  if  so,  the  corrective  steps  taken  to  improve  the health  infrastructure  and  facilities  for COVID management in  Tamil  Nadu  along  with  controlling  the  spread  of Corona  and development of vaccine for Corona across the country?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

(a) to (d): The current phase of pandemic in India is on multiple trajectories across the urban and semi urban areas of the country. Since the country has a huge population, it is expected tha there would be large number of cases every day during this phase. Tamil Na du is reporting a weekly average of about 5607 cases per day. As of now the number of cases in Tamil Na have stabilized. The weekly trend of cases for the State of Tamil Nadu is at Annexure I .

For appropriate management of COVID - 19 cases, a three tier a rrangement of health facilities [(i) COVID Care Center with isolation beds for mild or pre - symptomatic cases; (ii) Dedicated COVID Health Centre (DCHC) with oxygen supported isolation beds for moderate cases and (iii) Dedicated COVID Hospital (DCH) with IC U beds for severe cases] has been implemented.  Tertiary  care  hospitals  under  ESIC,  Defence,  Railways,  paramilitary  for Steel Ministry etc. have been leveraged for case management. As on 1 5 th September, 2020 ,a total of 15, 360 COVID treatment facilities with 13, 20, 881 dedicated isolation bed without O 2 support have been created. Also, a total of 2, 32, 516 oxygen supported isolation beds and 63, 194 ICU beds (including 32, 409 ventilator  beds). Guidelines  on  Clinical  management  of  COVID - 19  have  been issued and are being updatedregularly.

In accordance with the guidance of MoHFW, Government of Tamil Nadu, has set up a similar three tier structure, the details of which are given in Annexure II . The S tate was advised to plan for the requisite number o f isolation, oxygen supported and ICU beds, based on the prevalent an expected case growth rate.

MoHFW is also monitoring the COVID hospital infrastructure. In addition, Minist of  Health  and  Family  Welfare  has  been  monitoring  and  regularly  interacting w th  State Government  to  advice  on  public  health  action  to control spread  of COVID.  Five  Central teams have been deployed to the State of Tamil Nadu in the months of April, May and J 2020.

Government of India has taken a series of otheraction s to prevent, control and mitigate the impact of COVID - 19 . India followed a whole of Government and whole of society approach. Hon'ble Prime Minister, a High level Group of Ministers (GoM) ,Cabinet Secretary ,Committee of Secretaries and  senior  officers  in  MoHF W  continue  to  monitor  public  health  response  to  COVID - 19  in  the country .

The public health actions were taken in a pre - emptive, pro - active, graded manner based on the evolving scenario. A number of travel advisories were issued restricting inflow of internati travelers, till such time, commercial flights were suspended on 23 rd March, 2020. Till then, a total of 14,154 flights with 15,24,266 passengers have been screened at these airp orts. Screening was also done at 12 major and 65 minor ports and land border crossings. In the initial part of the p India evacuated a large number of stranded passengers from then COVID affected countries (Chi Italy, Iran, Japan, Malaysia) and again in the un - lockdown phase, a total of 13,18,891 passengers have been brought back (as on 14 th September, 2020) and followed up.

Integrated  Disease  Surveillance  Programme  (IDSP) is  conducting  contact  tracing  through community surveillance . In the earlier part of the pandemic, this was done for travel related cases and subsequently for cases being reported from community as a part of containment strategy. As on 1 4 th September 2020, a total of about 40 lakh persons have been kept under surve illance . There are 726 laboratories conducting COVID - 19 Testing. India is testing is about 1 million samplesa day .A total of 5 .8 crore samples have been tested so far ( as on 14 th September 2020 ) .

States are being supported in terms of supply of logistic s. So far 1.41 Crore of PPE Kits , 3.44 crores N - 95 masks, 10.84 crore tablets of Hydroxychloroquine and 30,663 ventilators and 1,02,400 oxygen cylinders have been supplied to States/UTs/ Central Government hospitals so far (as on 1 th September, 2020).

Various cadres of personnel and volunteers across sectors and departments forCOVID related works and maintenance of other essential medical services have been worked out, t rain ed through resources  made  available  on  the  website  of MoHFW , iGOT  (online  platfor m) by DOPT (https://igot.gov.in/igot/ ) .

MoHFW website is being daily to provide general public with information on current sta of COVID - 19 spread in India. Communication material is also being hosted on MoHFW website and through social media. A dedicated call centre / helpline (1075) has been started to guide comm large which are being used by the citizens very effectively and on a regular basis.

As far as development of vaccine is concerned, more tha n 30 vaccine candidates have been supported which are in different stages of development, 3 candidates are in advanced stage of I/II/III  trials  and  more  than  4  are  in  advanced  pre - clinical  development  stage.  A  National  Expert Group on Vaccine Adminis tration for COVID - 19  has been constituted on 7th August, 2020, under NITI Ayog.

## Weekly average of daily new cases for the State of Tamil Nadu

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## COVID -Treatment Facility in Tamil Nadu

|   Sr No | Type of Facility   |   No ofFacility |   Total Isolation beds (excluding ICU beds) | O2 Supported beds   | ICU beds   | Ventilators   |
|---------|--------------------|-----------------|---------------------------------------------|---------------------|------------|---------------|
|       1 | DCH                |              54 |                                       34722 | 13046               | 3728       | 2169          |
|       2 | DCHC               |             511 |                                       39640 | 12361               | 4711       | 2088          |
|       3 | DCCC               |             694 |                                      116941 | -                   | -          | -             |