After one of the state-run children homes in Chennai had become the COVID-19 hotspot as most of the children sheltered in the home have confirmed to have contracted to the virus, the Supreme Court has demanded the Tamil Nadu government to disclose the measures taken in the state and contain the spread in the city and to prevent children from getting infected to the virus.

According to the reports, the Apex court bench comprising of Justices Krishna Muraru and Ravindra Bhat has, on Thursday, has taken a suo motu cognizance of the developments at the children home in Chennai based on the news reports from the state and ordered the Tamil Nadu government to file its response. 

The reports say that 35 children sheltered at a government home in Royapuram, Chennai had tested positive for the virus on June 6 following which the vulnerable children were taken to the government hospital in Tondiarpet for further treatment. The corporation has tested all the children and staff after which it came to the revelation that 43 children in total have been infected by the pandemic.

The state-run house has been sheltering a total of 57 children with various backgrounds including underprivileged, poor, and orphaned children and they have contracted to the virus through a staff attached to the home, who was earlier tested positive and of these 57, many children belong to West Bengal and Jharkhand. 

This has been the first of its kind incident in Chennai which has exposed the vulnerability of the children living in the homes, leaving the Supreme court to take the case on its own motion on preventing the children. The Supreme Court bench has ordered Tamil Nadu Health Secretary Beela Rajesh to disclose the status report on how the government has been tackling the spread among children who are sheltered in the homes. 

By adjourning the hearing to June 15, the apex court further stated that it would direct all the state governments to disclose the reports of how the states have been preventing the children from the pandemic in their respective territories.