Amid the prevailing speculation in Tamil Nadu over the community spread of the virus as the state has been reporting with more number of positive cases each day, state Health Secretary Beela Rajesh has denied such claims of having community transmission and highlighted that the state still travels in stage two.

According to the reports, Beela Rajesh said that only three out of 376 people who were admitted to the hospitals for Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) have tested positive for the Coronavirus in the state. While addressing the reporters, she stated that the health department has collected the swab and blood samples from 376 people who had affected with SARI and carried out the tests simultaneously and as the result, only three of them had tested positive for the virus after they came in direct contact with the already virus affected patients.

The results have indicated that the state is still in the second stage with no reporting of community spread. She reiterated that this has been the reason the government has appealed to the people to maintain self-isolation and physical distancing. She further stated that the state has been swiftly acting upon towards carrying out the containment plans to combat the spread of the virus.

On Friday, Tamil Nadu has reported 102 fresh cases affected by the virus that had put the total number of infected cases to 411, making the state to become the second Indian state with the most number of cases after Maharashtra. Of these 102 cases, 100 had attended the Tablighi Jamaat Conference that was organized in Delhi earlier in March, and one had a travel history to the United States while the source of infection for the other patient is yet to be ascertained.

While addressing the reporters on Friday, Beela Rajesh said that the state has been strictly implementing the containment plan to curb the spread of the virus. Of 411 cases, 364 have been identified to have attended the conference in Delhi, which has become the new epicenter for the virus. The state has recorded with seven recoveries and one death so far in its territory. Chennai tops the list of reporting with the most number of cases in the state. The capital city has 81 cases so far and on April 2, the city had 46 cases while the districts like Dindigul, Tirunelveli, and Erode have reported with 43, 36, and 32 cases respectively.

Stage one of the Coronavirus indicates the people who were tested positive for the virus due to the different travel histories while stage two can be described as the local transmission in which the spread of the pandemic can be traced and identified among the people who came close contacts with the already affected patients of stage one. The local transmission would largely occur for the family and friends of the affected patients. The third stage denotes the community spread and transmission and during this stage, the source of the virus infection is not traceable and the people with having no travel or contact histories would be affected by the global pandemic.