Edappadi K. Palaniswami said the government had taken all preventive measures to tackle the spread of COVID-19 on a war-footing.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Tuesday said that there was no need to suspend the current session of the Legislative Assembly, saying that the government had taken all preventive measures to tackle the spread of COVID-19 on a war-footing.

“There is no need to fear. The State has a population of 8 crore people and only one person has tested positive (the patient has since been discharged). Though diseases are natural, it (COVID-19) has not assumed dangerous proportions,” he told the Assembly while responding to DMK Deputy leader Duraimurugan and Congress leader K.R. Ramasami.

Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar, who explained the measures taken by the government, pointed out that visitors were no longer permitted to watch the Assembly proceedings.

Responding to Opposition leader and DMK president M.K. Stalin, he said the government was open and transparent when it came to taking action to control the pandemic. He said testing facilities were available at five hospitals and each had the capacity of testing 100 cases per day. “While Kerala, Maharashtra and other States had reported more cases, there was only one patient in the State who had tested positive. He was also discharged after treatment,” he said.

As regards Mr. Stalin’s request to allow private laboratories to test patients for COVID-19, the Minister said the permission should come from the Centre and the State government was coordinating with the Centre to get permission.

He said as many as 1,80,062 persons have been tested and only 2,221 of them were quarantined.