As Tamil Nadu is faltering in the wake of the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has kept his hope on God on when the pandemic will end in the state amid the containment strategies and efforts.

While addressing the reporters in Velachery, Chennai on Saturday after visiting the government quarantine facility installed in Guru Nanak College, the Chief Minister said only God knows when the COVID-19 pandemic will end in the state. He reiterated that the state government is working to prevent and subdue the spread of the virus. 

According to the Chief Minister, the 12 days complete lockdown in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur, and Chengalpattu is a speed breaker for breaking the chain of the virus spread. He stated that the lockdown has been imposed to restrict the movement of people and it will also aid the authorities to carry out a door-to-door survey across these districts to identify the people with symptoms and carry out testings to detect the spread and carriers at the early stage.

He stressed that the government has been initiating all the preventive measures to contain the spread and the state has a recovery rate of 54% so far. By citing that there is no cure for the pandemic, the Chief Minister stated that the Chennai Corporation has installed 17,500 beds and medical facilities to treat the patients in the city.

He asserted that the state has been pacing up the COVID-19 testing and it has tested 8.27 lakh samples so far - the highest in India and the health department and the corporation have been carrying out arrangements to enhance the testing numbers. He also said Tamil Nadu has 83 testing centers - also the highest in India. 

The Chief Minister echoed what he had said before by stating that the virus came to the state from overseas and from people who traveled to the state from other regions and he affirmed that the government has been taking the preventive measures and the state has reported a higher recovery rate due to the efforts taken by the doctors, nurses, and health care workers. 

While responding to the question on whether the lockdown would be extended, the Chief Minister said that the government has no plan currently to extend the lockdown and it has been following the recommendations of the medical experts' committee. He further appealed to the people to co-operate with the government's guidelines to curb the spread of the pandemic. 

On Saturday, the Chief Minister visited the 350-bedded government quarantine facility for the COVID-19 patients which was set up at the Guru Nanak College in Chennai. As of Friday, the state has reported 54,449 COVID-19 cases of which 38,000 cases are from Chennai.