Chennai, June 15(BPNS)

Tamil Nadu Minister for Medical and Family Welfare, Ma Subramanian has said that the Children whose parents were Covid -19 positive but turned negative during their death is also eligible for the Rs 5 lakh aid announced by the state government for children whose parents die due to Covid-19.

Ma Subramanian was speaking to reporters at Tiruvottriyur, North Chennai on  Tuesday.

The Minister said that these children would be included in the scheme on a compassionate basis. He said, “The drive to identify eligible children is already in progress.”

He was answering to a query that there were several cases wherein people tested positive and after getting cured and testing negative they die and whether the children of these people would be eligible for the Rs 5 lakh assistance scheme announced by the Chief Minister.

The minister also said that the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) had formulated the guidelines for reporting Covid -19 deaths and added that sometimes people die due to many comorbidities and not because of the virus itself.

Ma Subramanian said, “People come to hospitals after testing Covid-19 positive and they get cured but later they passed away owing to other comorbidities which need not necessarily be directly due to the virus. I will apprise the Central government of these factors and people losing out on benefits due to how the  deaths were reported.”

He also pointed out that Member of Parliament H Vasanthakumar and renowned musician SP Balasubramanian passed had tested negative when they died.

The Medical and Family Minister also said that the L&T company will set up oxygen generators with a capacity of 1000 litres of oxygen per minute. This will be  set up at five localities of Tamil Nadu, the minister said.

He said that the first oxygen generator with 1000 litres of oxygen per minute was set up at Royapettah General Hospital at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore and added that the remaining cylinders would be set up in the days to come.

He said that the doctors from AIIMS have said that there is no proof of the third wave of the pandemic affecting children but added that the government is ready with all the necessary infrastructure. He said that the state has 70,000 oxygen fitted beds and added that these beds would not be removed even if the curve is flattened and added that the state would be ready if any third-wave surfaces.

Ma Subramanian said that vaccination drive will continue in the state and that there won’t be any shortage in the state.