Tamil Nadu Records Highest Single Day Spike In COVID-19 Cases

Chennai: Tamil Nadu, the second worst-hit state by the coronavirus pandemic after Maharashtra, recorded the highest single day spike over the last 24 hours with 1,685 cases. The state tally stands at close to 35,000 reaching 34,914 confirmed cases of coronavirus patients. Tamil Nadu has recorded 307 deaths so far, while 16,282 patients in the state are active cases. 18,325 patients have been cured/discharged in Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile DMK MLA J. Anbazhagan died of COVID-19 tragically on his 62nd birthday in a Chennai hospital on Wednesday morning. The MLA who represented the Chepauk Triplicane constituency was under treatment for coronavirus. Doctors said that his condition had taken a turn for the worse on Monday, following which he did not fully recover.

The DMK MLA had complained of breathlessness more than a week ago and a COVID-19 test returned positive. He was later hospitalised. Anbazhagan is the first legislator in Tamil Nadu to succumb to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Tamil Nadu government, meanwhile, put a cap on treatment of COVID-19 patients in hospitals across the state. As per the directives of the Tamil Nadu government, hospitals are supposed to charge Rs.5000 for treatment of COVID-19 in a general ward and Rs.15,000 per day in an ICU ward of a private hospital. Media reports however, stated that several private hospitals were charging more than the amount capped by the state government. Some hospitals stated that they were yet to implement the directives, while several others admitted that the hospitals incurred heavy costs in terms of expenditure on staff, other overheads including PPE kids and so on. It remains to be seen whether the state/Central governments would step forward to bail out hospitals in terms of expenditure incurred by them.