Leaders of Tamil Nadu’s main opposition party, the DMK, are a worried lot after four of its MLAs tested positive for coronavirus in the last two days.
DMK MLAs R.K. Karthikeyan from Vellore, R. Gandhi from Ranipet, Ganesan from Thittakudi and T. Senguttavan from Krishnagiri have all been hospitalised after they tested positive. All of them showed coronavirus symptoms like fever, cough, and body pain.
With these four MLAs, the count of corona-positive legislators from the state has gone up to 16, which includes four ministers as well.
In June this year, DMK MLA from Thiruvalliakeni, Chepauk, J. Anbazahagan had died after being infected by the virus. His demise forced the party to suspend its coronavirus relief activities.
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All infected MLAs, including the ministers, chose to get admitted to private hospitals rather than government hospitals and drew criticism that it amounted to lack of confidence in the state-ran facilities. The reasoning given by these politicians is that they could afford treatment in private hospitals and did not want to add to the load of government hospitals whose facilities were already stretched.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Chief Minister K Palaniswami on the Covid-19 prevention measures.
During the phone conversation, Palaniswami apprised Modi that 48,000 coronavirus tests were being done daily (average) in Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu has so far recorded 1.70 lakh coronavirus cases with 1.17 lakh patients having recovered and discharged and 2,481 succumbing to the disease. It is the second worst-affected state after Maharashtra.
