As Chennai has been witnessing the sharpest rise in COVID-19 cases each day, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Vijayabaskar has asserted that the city would be equipped with 1,100 additional hospital beds to treat the virus-hit patients and his statement has come amid the growing speculations on the dearth of beds and treatment facilities in the city.

The Health Minister has, on Tuesday, said that Tamil Nadu is expected to hit the tally of 1.3 lakh cases by the end of June, according to the study carried out by Dr.MGR Medical University and the health department has been observing the predictions made by the agencies of the state of COVID-19 and the government has been preparing to tackle the rapid spread.

With the view of that, the health department would be installing additional beds in the city and the Government Ophthalmic Hospital in Egmore and Chennai port hospital would be equipped with nearly 300 beds each in its facilities to treat the patients and along with that, the health department has been prepared with 500 additional beds at the premises of King Institute of Preventive Medicine.

King Institute is one of the active testing centers in the city for COVID-19 testing and all these additional beds would be installed with a sufficient supply of oxygen supply and with the ventilators. The health department would be deploying a medical team, including doctors, experts, specialists, and medical staff on the campus to treat and quarantine the virus-hit and affected patients.

According to the reports, the health department has instructed the private medical colleges in the city and state to reserve at least 50% of their beds for treating the COVID-19 patients. While announcing the collaboration with the private hospitals, Vijayabaskar said that the government would integrate with 70 private hospitals in the city to accommodate and treat the patients. 

On Tuesday, Tamil Nadu has reported the highest single-day rise of cases with 1,685 fresh cases through which the state has crossed the tally of 34,000 by reporting 34,914 cases so far. Of these 1,685 cases, 1,243 cases in Chennai and the state has also recorded the highest single-day rise in death toll by reporting 21 deaths. Chennai has recorded 24,545 cases so far.

Of thee 21 deaths, 20 belong to Chennai while one belonged to Thiruvallur. Out of these 21, 16 deceased had co-morbid conditions which are one of the larger factors causing the death due to the pandemic. On Monday, Vijayabaskar said that Chennai has 5000 beds available and denied the allegations of the shortage of beds in the hospitals.