Amid the election fervor, the state of Tamil Nadu is distressingly witnessing what has become a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic as after recording a sharp decline, the state has been recording a steady rise in the COVID-19 cases in recent days, leaving the state to put back the strict guidelines on the floor to tackle the outbreak. 

India and Tamil Nadu have been bracing up for a big challenge ahead of the elections triggered by the possible second wave of the novel coronavirus. The states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala have been witnessing a surge in fresh cases. With five crucial assembly polls, 2021 has become the election year as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, and Puducherry will be going to the polls from late this month to the entire April. As the people and political parties are gearing up for the polls, the rise of COVID-19 cases has bothered them. 

For the first time in 81 days, Tamil Nadu has reported over a thousand cases which had put the total cases to over 8.60 lakhs. The poll-bound state has reported 1,087 new cases on Friday. The last time when the state had reported cases in four digits was on December 28, 2020, and through the new single-day rise, Tamil Nadu has reported 8,64,450 cases so far as of Friday.

The state had also reported nine deaths on Friday taking the death toll to 12,582. On Friday, Chennai had reported 421 fresh cases and four deaths while 2,552 people are under treatment. The single-day rise on Friday had also become the highest surge for this year. According to state health secretary Radhakrishnan, Chennai had reported 2,528 active cases on January 1 and after mid-February, COVID-19 clusters began to rise as most of the people had failed to adhere to the COVID-19 guidelines. 

The average number of cases reported every day in Chennai, which was around 144 between February 12 and 18, increased to 152 a week later. According to reports, the average number of cases reported by the city last week was around 250, and from March 12-18 around 326 cases were reported every day. The fatality rate in the state is stable at 1.5% since September 2020 and besides Chennai, the districts like Chengalpet and Kancheepuram have been recording a rise in fresh cases. 

The reports say that in the Chennai region, which covers four districts - Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, and Chengalpet together had reported 60% of the total cases in the state of Friday. Following Chennai, Chengalpet reported the highest number of cases and deaths as the district had reported 105 new cases and two deaths and Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram had reported 78 and 37 cases respectively. 

As the state has been witnessing the emergence of another wave of the pandemic, there were speculations that the state will be imposed with a complete lockdown again to curb the spread of the viral infection. However, while addressing the reporters earlier this week, Health Secretary Radhakrishnan had appealed to the people not to believe in rumors over another lockdown and advised the political leaders and people to wear masks and adhere to the COVID-19 protocols to contain the virus spread. 

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had held a meeting virtually with the Chief Ministers during which he appealed to them to increase the COVID-19 vaccination programme and to work towards containing the second wave of the pandemic. It has to be noted that Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Rajeev Ranjan had said that a fine will be imposed on people who fail to wear masks in public places.

According to the state health department, Tamil Nadu has reported 8,64,450 COVID-19 cases so far as of Friday of which 6,690 are active, 8,45,178 have been discharged, and 12,582 had succumbed to the viral infection. On Friday alone, the state had reported 1,087 fresh cases, 610 discharges, and nine deaths.