With the grounds of rampant spread in Tamil Nadu, the COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting the people from all walks of lives and in all measures of precautions as the state had witnessed some of the lawmakers and senior ministers tested positive for the viral infection amid the containment measures. 

In line with that, Senior ADMK Minister MR Vijayabhaskar has, on Tuesday, tested positive for the global pandemic, becoming the fifth minister in Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami's cabinet to confirmed to have contracted to the viral infection. 

According to the reports, Vijayabaskar, who is the Minister of Transports, has tested positive along with his wife and daughter and he has been getting treated at the Apollo Hospitals in Chennai in isolation. Earlier, four senior ministers of the state - KP Anbalagan, Thangamani, Sellur Raju, and Nilofer Kafeel, had spelled positive for the virus and all of them had recovered. 

The reports say that the source of infection of the minister, who belongs to Karur district, is yet to be ascertained. On Tuesday, along with the minister his rival district party leader DMK MLA Senthil Balaji has also tested positive for the viral infection and the latter has been getting treated at a private hospital in Trichy. 

Senthil Balaji was the former Transport Minister under the ADMK government. However, he was later removed from the party by then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and following the latter's demise, he joined Dhinakaran's Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam before joining Stalin's camp. He is the key party leader from Karur, where his ADMK's cabinet successor belongs to. 

Including Senthil Balaji and Vijayabaskar, over 20 legislators, from both DMK and ADMK, in Tamil Nadu had tested positive for the COVID-19 viral infection so far of which DMK's J Anbalagan had succumbed to the viral infection on June 10, becoming the first MLA to die due to the pandemic in the country while the rest of the lawmakers are either cured or getting treated at the hospitals. 

As of Tuesday, Tamil Nadu has reported 3,49,654 cases so far of which 53,860 are active, 2,89,787 have been recovered, and 6,007 had succumbed to the viral infection. The state has been recording the biggest spikes in deaths for the last two weeks as it has been reporting over a hundred deaths every day taking the toll to the never-wished high. 

On Tuesday, the state has reported 121 fresh deaths and through the current reporting of 121 deaths, Tamil Nadu has reported over a hundred single-day deaths for the sixteenth consecutive day and for the past sixteen days, including Tuesday, the state has reported 1,875 deaths,