The number of H1N1 influenza cases reported in a day has gradually reduced in Tamil Nadu, with only five cases reported in the last 24 hours, Health Minister Ma. Subramanian said on Tuesday.

The Minister held a meeting with officials of the Health department to review monsoon preparedness, fever camps, maintenance of hospital premises during the monsoon, drugs stock and stage of implementation of schemes announced in the Health department’s demand for grants.

H1N1 influenza cases had started to surface in Tamil Nadu nearly 20 days ago and have reduced to a large extent now, he said. “The number of H1N1 cases have reduced gradually due to the daily intensive fever camps every day…In the last 24 hours, only five persons were affected with H1N1,” he told reporters. Presently, the active caseload of dengue was 361.

He added that a total of 13,178 camps, apart from mobile camps in schools, were held, benefitting 19,71,355 persons in the last 20 days.

On the progress of COVID-19 vaccination, he said that the State’s first dose coverage has crossed 96%, while the second dose coverage was 91%. “The administration of free precautionary doses as per the Union government’s announcement ended on September 30. We have requested the Union government that the free administration of booster doses should continue. In this situation, the Union government has said that the issue of booster dose should be solved using the existing stock of vaccines. We have nine lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines in hand now,” he said.

He added instructions to expedite administration of vaccines would be stressed during the review meeting.

With the 11 new government medical colleges starting to function in the State, the Minister said work to start operationalising hospitals in these institutions would be discussed during the meeting. “Each of these government medical college hospitals will have 600 to 700 beds. We will soon start the hospitals one-by-one,” he added.

Similarly, an analysis was carried out to identify which places required new primary and urban health centres in the State. “After five years, the Union government had approved 25 primary health centres (PHC) and 25 urban health centres. We had asked the deputy directors of health services (DDHS) to identify places that required the facilities in their respective districts. The analysis report on the 50 locations will be discussed,” he said.

Steps were being taken up to fill the posts of resident medical officers, assistant resident medical officers and medical superintendents that were vacant in seven or eight medical college hospitals, he said.

Work to establish warehouses of the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation in six more districts are in progress, he said. The State had stock of drugs for three to four months.

“We have asked district-level officers to ensure prompt collection of drugs from warehouses and uninterrupted supply to hospitals. The DDHS have been told to continuously monitor the block medical officers in their jurisdiction to ensure that the PHCs had prompt supply of required medicines,” he said.