As many as 43 people tested positive for coronavirus in Tamil Nadu on Monday, taking the total number of cases to 1,520 in the state, Health Minister C Vijayabaskar said.
While there were 43 new cases, a doctor died on Sunday and another died today taking the aggregate number of deaths in the state to 17, he told reporters here.
The Minister hit out at the principal opposition DMK for targeting the government over the purchase of rapid test kits and asked the Leader of the Opposition not to indulge in politics in the fight against COVID-19 and condemned what he called "cheap politics."
A total of 457 people have been discharged from various hospitals after recovery so far, including 46 today, he said.
Though they have been discharged, they will be in home quarantine for 16 more days, he said, adding that of the 1043 active cases, six people alone needed "oxygen support."
Of the total infected, 1,302 contracted the illness through a "single source," he said, in an apparent reference to an event held in Delhi last month.
Chennai continued to top the list of infected districts with 303 cases and the State capital had the maximum of new positive cases (18) reported today.
As regards testing, he said labs in the government sector have been increased to 23 and alongside 10 private facilities, the state now has 33 such amenities.
"As many as 6,109 samples (confirmatory RT-PCR test) were tested today, of which 43 tested positive. Totally the figure stands at 46,985."
The Minister said WHO officials have inspected the government facilities and appreciated the anti-COVID-19 initiatives like following protocol in state hospitals.
To a question on the price of rapid test kits, he said the price of Rs 600 per kit was fixed by the Centre and procurement was done transparently.
DMK chief M K Stalin had demanded that he government disclose the price of kits considering transparency and also had cited Chattisgarh's rate,which was lower than Tamil Nadu.
Recently, Tamil Nadu received 24,000 testing kits from China and 12,000 from the Centre.
Vijayabaskar said that while Andhra Pradesh had bought the kits at a higher price than Tamil Nadu, the opposition parties there had praised the government for action to get the equipment to test people, unlike in this state.
"Please do not do politics in matters like fighting a disease....it is cheap politics.
In Chattisgarh the kits have not yet been supplied. It is said it will take 10 more days for them to get it."
The testing with rapid test kits was being done as per guidelines to ascertain if there had been community spread anywhere, he said.
"There is no community spread so far. This should be a united fight against the virus. This is not the time to do politics involving the lives of the people," he said.
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