Daily COVID-19 cases soar past 30,000 in TN

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu found the number of new COVID-19 cases crossing 30,000 in the past 24 hours, officials said on Thursday.

The total COVID-19 cases in the state stands at 14,68,864. According to a bulletin released by State Health department, out of the 30,355 cases that were found on Wednesday, 7,564 were from Chennai alone.

Chengalpatu reported 2,670 cases, followed by Coimbatore with 2,636 cases, Thiruvallur with 1,344, Madurai with 1,172, Kanyakumari with 1,076.

Officials also confirmed the death of four patients overnight due to lack of oxygen outside the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital in Chennai, where they were waiting in ambulances to get oxygen beds. Dozens of patients face a similar crisis outside the 845-bed hospital because beds are not vacant. Patients, many breathless, wait in the ambulance for hours as all the beds are filled.

Ambulances are plying around the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital. In Chennai, more than 7,000 people are infected every day.

The Sterlite copper plant in Thoothukudi, which was reopened recently purely for the production of medical oxygen, meanwhile said on Thursday that it has already despatched the first batch to Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli.

The company said it send out 4.8 tonnes of liquid oxygen.

Production had started on Wednesday, it said.

“We will despatch two such oxygen tankers every day as the production is gradually increased,” the statement said. “The oxygen supplied is of 98.6 per cent purity and has received the necessary medical-grade certifications. We are now working with experts to resolve the logistics involved in transporting the oxygen produced in our facility to required parts of India, and are coordinating with the authorised nodal agencies in this regard.” The Supreme Court on April 27 had cleared the reopening for oxygen production of Sterlite, which was shutered in May 2018 ater 13 local people protesting against deadly pollution from the plant were shot dead.

Sterlite Copper CEO, Pankaj Kumar, said, “My team members and I are honoured that our facili-ty and efforts are being directly put into helping save lives. We promise to make every possible effort to ensure that there is continuous produc-tion of oxygen from our plant to mitigate this crisis.” A commitee opposed to the plant will monitor the production of oxygen and also decide on running the unit.

Veteran actor Sivakumar and his superstar sons Suriya and Karthi together donated Rs10 million to the Chief Minister’s Public Relief fund (CMPRF) on Thursday. Ater handing over the cheque to Chief Minister MK Stalin along with his sons, Sivakumar said: “People are batling against fire.