"We have received the interim guidelines from the Centre on the monkeypox disease. That is people arriving from African countries or Europe, Australia, Canada, and the USA, though did not show any symptom at the airport, but developed some symptoms within 21 days of their arrival, they have to report it to the local health official," J Radhakrishnan told reporters after inspecting the district government hospital in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu.
People should be cautious and follow the government's COVID-19 protocols, he advised.
"We have been told that the disease will not be severe, but we have to be careful to prevent it. So far, no cases related to monkeypox virus have been reported in the country," J Radhakrishnan said.
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The Health Department has reinforced the medical infrastructure in Tamil Nadu, the health officer stated, and that the government was able to identify clusters of virus infections reported in the state due to the strong surveillance mechanism.
"Earlier, we detected a cluster of virus cases on the IIT-Madras campus and later in another private medical college. Now, we have detected another cluster at a private engineering college at Kelambakkam in the city. All the 31 cases reported are doing well," he said.
Radhakrishnan said the students who tested COVID-19 positive on the campus of IIT Madras and at the private medical college have "fully recovered." To a query, he said 410 students were checked at the private engineering college and 31 have tested COVID-19 positive till date.
"What these incidents at the educational institutions indicate is that when the virus is waning in the State, we are giving an opportunity for it to grow by not following the COVID-19 behaviour," he said. Strongly advocating vaccination as it was the only mechanism to prevent the spread of virus, he said there were 1.21 crore people who were yet to receive the second dose of vaccination while 43.45 lakh have taken the first. "Another 13 lakh people are eligible to receive booster doses and are yet to receive it," he said.
"Chief Minister (M K Stalin) has been directing the authorities to strengthen the medical infrastructure. We have also strengthened the testing facilities. What we urge people to do is that they should wear a face-mask while in public, maintain social distance and take the vaccine," he said. Tamil Nadu has been reporting a decline in new COVID-19 cases on account of vaccination, adherence to COVID-19 behaviour while in public, he said.
Referring to the status of coronavirus cases in neighbouring States, Radhakrishnan said Kerala was reporting over 700 cases while Karnataka was reporting over 150 cases on a daily basis.
"Mumbai is recording 350 cases daily, while, overall, Maharashtra as a State, recorded over 500 per day. Tamil Nadu recorded its lowest on April 15 with 22 cases and Chennai 12, but now the metro is reporting 30-40 cases. This shows that we should stay on alert," he said.
(With PTI inputs)
