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Tirupati . lucknow . cuttack . patna NEARBY PM asks States to suggest plan CM seeks ₹3,000 crore to for staggered end to lockdown procure equipment ‘Appoint disease surveillance o!cers in all districts, collate data from private labs’ Palaniswami urges PM to increase borrowing limit of States 11.63% cardholders get cash, grain on day one Nistula Hebbar Special Correspondent CHENNAI NEW DELHI Cong. seeks CHENNAI Amid reports of violation of What do you mean by APMC? Prime Minister Narendra Chief Minister Edappadi K. physical distancing norms in more relief Modi, at his second video- Palaniswami on Thursday certain places of the State What are the salient features of the APMC Act? urged Prime Minister Naren- and the alleged involvement conference with Chief Minis- The Congress Working dra Modi to allocate ₹3,000 of members of the ruling ters, on Thursday told them whyCommittee it(CWC) is heldbecoming its redundant now? AIADMK, the distribution of that it was “important to for- !rst-ever virtual meeting crore for procuring personal ₹1,000 cash and free rice, mulate a common exit stra- Whaton Thursday are to discuss it’s the shortcomings?protective equipment (PPE), pulses, edible oil and tegy to ensure staggered re- challenges posed by the N-95 masks and ventilators Heads-up: Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami interacting sugar to ration cardholders emergence of the population WhatCOVID-19 pandemic, do you meanin the wake by of theNAM COVID-19 andwith Prime e NAM? Minister Narendra How Modi on can Thursday. NAM began on Thursday, to once the lockdown ends”. where party president crisis. mitigate the adverse impact Mr. Modi emphasised that orSonia eGandhi NAM asked the be a panaceaDuring a video-confe- to the ashortcomingslso be released immediate- dofays, he APMC? stated. of COVID-19. the collective goal of all Union government to rence with the Prime Minis- ly, he said. “The ways and “A detailed micro plan for should be to “save every In- come out with a “common ter, Mr. Palaniswami also means limit of the States, each district has been drawn TAMIL NADU Ī PAGE 2 Write a consolidated essay covering all these aspects. DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD dian”. He asked the States to minimum relief sought an increase in the which was increased by 30% up to meet the health care brainstorm and send sugges- programme”. The supply of test kits to the by the RBI, should be dou- needs of the elderly, antena- Incentives announced for tions for the exit strategy. The way forward: Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacting unplanned lockdown State. bled. The ways and means tal and post-natal mothers making COVID-19 drugs He listed certain “must do with Chief Ministers via video conference on Thursday. * PTI caused “chaos and pain An o#cial release said Mr. advances availed during and infants, patients on CHENNAI steps” that need to be taken for migrant workers”, she Palaniswami reiterated his 2020-21 should be made in- treatment for TB, HIV, hy- The State government has as the nation entered the se- ply lines for medical equip- vest operations and they said. Ī page 8 demand for allocation of terest-free,” Mr. Palaniswami pertension and diabetes, announced a special incentive cond week of the total lock- ment and drugs and raw ma- should maintain some physi- ₹9,000 crore and raising of added. and patients needing dialy- to promote manufacture of down. “Our !rst priority for terials needed for the cal distancing even on !elds. the !scal de!cit limit of 3% Elaborating on the status sis,” he said. The Health De- COVID-19-related medical the next few weeks should manufacture of these pro- “As for procurement, we ‘Supply of of GSDP for 2020-21 as a one- of COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu, partment had identi!ed equipment and drugs. be testing, tracing, isolating ducts need to be kept seam- must !nd ways to do it time measure. “To meet the he said that the State Disas- 22,000 isolation beds and These include ventilators, and quarantine. For this, all less, even more than sup- beyond the route of Agricul- essentials hit’ additional expenditure aris- ter Management Authority 5,934 ICU beds in govern- personal protective ing due to this pandemic, ad- had conducted 11 meetings, ment and private sectors so equipment (PPE) kits, State to district level e"orts plies of other products. tural Produce Marketing With transportation and N-95 masks, multi-para must be coordinated,” he Committees (APMC). A truck supply woes continuing, ditional borrowing of 33% adding that he had issued va- far. As on date, 2,641 sam- monitors, anti-malarial pointed out. Separate hospitals pooling scheme should also there is concern over above the permitted level for rious directions and was ad- ples had been tested and and anti-viral drugs. Mr. Modi urged that dis- “Every State should ensure be worked out with farmers depleting reserves of 2019-20 may be allowed for dressing the situation on a 1,631 persons had been iso- trict-level disease surveil- that there are separate hos- for ferrying produce to the essentials. “Demand for 2020-21,” he said. daily basis. lated, Mr. Palaniswami TAMIL NADU Ī PAGE 2 DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD lance o#cers should be ap- pitals for COVID-19 patients, market. Harvesting will pos- movement of essential Mr. Palaniswami urged added. pointed as soon as possible and the doctors attending to sibly need to be done in a goods is increasing. But the Centre to release in ad- Steps taken The Government Medical to make sure that penetra- them need to be protected. I staggered manner,” he is re- supply is not even close to vance the grants due to Inter-State transport, except College Hospital at Omandu- tion of this strategy is opti- would also urge you to step ported to have said. matching it,” Abhishek States in 2020-21 as well as for the movement of goods, rar in Chennai and Coimba- mum. Data collected from up online training of doctors The Centre would release Gupta, managing director, 50% of the Finance Commis- had been stopped, the avail- tore ESI Medical College private laboratories allowed in the treatment of CO- ₹11,000 crore from the State Prakash Parcel Services sion grants to urban and ru- ability of essential commodi- Hospital had been declared to test should be collated dis- VID-19,” he said. Disaster Relief Fund by this Ltd said. “Instructions of ral local bodies, besides 50% ties during the lockdown COVID-19 hospitals, the CM trict-wise to be utilised for This being the harvest month, and it should be the Ministry of Home of the revenue de!cit grant. had been ensured, about said. Apart from this, one further strategising on tack- season in many parts of the used for e"orts to !ght the A"airs to allow trucks to The GST compensation due 2.10 lakh international pas- hospital in each district had ling the pandemic. country, farmers and labour- COVID-19 pandemic. operate has not gone for December-January 2019- sengers had been screened been identi!ed and provid- In his opening remarks, ers, exempted from the lock- down yet in many places,” 20 and grants under the Na- and 77,330 of them put un- ed with treatment facilities CONTINUED ON METRO PLUS Ī 4 PAGES he emphasised that the sup- down, were engaged in har- Ī PAGE 8 he said. Ī page 12 tional Health Mission should der home quarantine for 28 for COVID-19. Virus cases double 9,000 with Tablighi Jamaat link sent into quarantine in India in #ve days 129 more from the sect’s headquarters test positive; 2 die on Thursday Testing protocol to be tweaked Nikhil M. Babu blacklisted, and legal action Saurabh Trivedi special correspondent ing the testing protocol, under the Foreigners Act and NEW DELHI New Delhi with a rapid anti-body test the Disaster Management Act The number of COVID-19 in hot-spots, where those in- At least 9,000 Tablighi Ja- against them will follow, a cases in India has doubled dicating a positive would be maat workers and their prim- tweet from the o#ce of the in the past week, with 328 sent for con!rmation and ary contacts have been qua- Union Home Minister said. more cases and 12 deaths re- the others would be rantined across the country There are 1,306 foreigners ported on Thursday. The quarantined. after the sect’s headquarters among the 9,000 in quaran- tally now stands at 2,069 “We will be releasing the in Nizamuddin, New Delhi, tine, Punya Salila Srivastava, cases, with 53 deaths and details soon,” R. Gangak- emerged as a hotspot of no- Joint Secretary in the Minis- 155 cured of the novel coro- hedkar, head of Epidemiol- vel coronavirus, the govern- try, told reporters. Around navirus infection. ogy and Communicable Dis- ment said on Thursday. 250 of them were at the Delhi The Health Ministry said eases-I, Indian Council of Around 500 COVID-19 cas- centre when the authorities there were reports of sever- Medical Research (ICMR), es in the country are linked evacuated it this week, but said at a press conference.