Heartbreak in under-siege Salem: Mother collapses begging for son's release

Corona receding in districts, no relent in big cities, TN death toll up to 24
 

ZAKEER HUSSAIN | D SEKAR | M.R. VENKATESH |DC

Salem/Chennai: Even milk and packaged water became scarce in the big cities of Tamil Nadu as the severest lockdown, a total civil curfew, was imposed on Chenna, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem, Tirupur.

The town to feel it the most was Salem.

There were heart-rending scenes. One pavement hawker of lemons was whisked away to a police station by the Salem city police, for violating the civil curfew.

His mother, Balamani went to the police station to plead for her son's release but collapsed there.

The city lockdown is the administration’s response to the continuing burgeoning of covid-19 numbers in the big cities while the rest of Tamil Nadu districts are safer at the moment.

Barring the big cities like Chennai and Madurai, which continue to rapidly add new positive cases of Covid-19, there is a ray of hope in the districts of Tamil Nadu.

There the incidence of coronavirus infection is showing a decline although the total number of positive cases in the state as a whole is still on an uptrend, touching 1,885 by Sundayy evening. The death toll is at 24 with one patient dying in Chennai Saturday. 

For example, on Saturday evening, the official bulletin on the overall Covid-19 situation in Tamil Nadu showed that 64 new patients had tested positive for the virus. But these were spatially distributed among only 10 of the 37 districts in the state.

 

There was happier news on Sunday: the other 27 districts did not report a single positive case that day. That’s a record of sorts with the government going in for intensifying the lockdown.

Krishnagiri is the only district so far that is in the 'green zone' as per ICMR norms.  Official sources cite the latest figures to say that the prevalence rate of coronavirus is seeing a visible decline in many districts.

But Chennai is a big worry. The state capital keeps adding to its high tally: on Sunday it accounting for 28 of the 64 new cases, followed by Madurai with 15.

The total Covid-19 positive cases in Chennai crossed the 500-mark to reach 523 on Sunday, and as many as 157 areas in the metro are barricaded as containment zones.

Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore are under the strictest lockdown yet, a total civil curfew, to rein in the virus in the big cities.

A central team of offcials, given the abbreviation of IMCT, visited the Koyembedu wholesale market, one Amma Canteen in the Vadapalani area, the quarantine centre at the Chennai Trade Centre at Nandambakkam and the Omandurar government multi-specialty hospital and reviewed various issues.

They were briefed by the commissioner for revenue admin, Dr J Radhakrishnan, the CMDA secretary Karthikeyan and he health secretary Dr Beela Rajesh.

From New Delhi, cabinet secretary Rajeev Gowda also held a video-conference meeting with Tamil Nadu chief secretary K Shanmugam, and ascertained the ground realities on various issues, including doctors being attacked in Chennai. The state’s home secretary Prabhakar and police chief J K Tripathy, also took part in the video conference.