'Test-Track-Treat': Tamil Nadu Govt Extends Lockdown Till April 30 After Recording 2,342 COVID-19 Cases; Issues New Guidelines

Tamil Nadu government noted that there is a need to ensure that the tests being conducted are uniformly distributed across all districts, with adequate testing to be done in districts reporting higher number of cases.

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In order to curb the spread of novel Coronavirus in the state, the Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday announced to extend the existing coronavirus-related restrictions. In an official notice, the state government said, "Government of Tamil Nadu hereby order to extend the state-wide lockdown till 24:00 hours of 30.4.2021 under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 with various relaxations."

Emphasising on effective enforcement of test-track-treat protocol as advised by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the state government issued fresh set guidelines as per which, "the proportion of RT-PCR tests in the total mix will be scaled up, on best effort basis, to 70 per cent or more."

The administration noted that there is a need to ensure that the tests being conducted are uniformly distributed across all districts, with adequate testing to be done in districts reporting higher number of cases.

Once tested, the new positive cases then need to be isolated/quarantined at the earliest and their contacts have to be traced at the earliest and isolated too.

In addition to this, the containment zones have to be demarcated and prescribed containment measures implemented within such zones.

In the next step as per the Test-Track-Treat protocol, the isolated patients shall be ensured treatment facilities, clinical interventions shall be administered, COVID dedicated health and logistics infrastructure shall be ensured.

The circular further noted that the district administration shall take all necessary measures to promote COVID-19 appropriate behavior. Meanwhile, all activities have been permitted outside containment zones.

As per the latest health bulletin, Tamil Nadu recorded 2342 positive cases of COVID-19 with 16 deaths on Tuesday. At present, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu is 14,846.