Centre nod for four new medical colleges in TN to kick off UG courses

The approval comes after the National Medical Commission recently inspected these four colleges.
Representational Image. (File Photo)
Representational Image. (File Photo)

CHENNAI: The Union Health Ministry gave approval for four of 11 new medical colleges in Tamil Nadu to start undergraduate courses from this academic year. The approval comes after the National Medical Commission recently inspected these four colleges.

The four medical colleges in Namakkal, Krishnagiri, Tiruppur and Dindugal districts will function with intake of 150 students each. Hence, a total 600 MBBS seats will be added this year, said Health Minister Ma Subramanian. The minister said this while speaking to the reporters on Monday at the Puratchi Thalaivar Dr MG Ramachandran Central Railway Station. He inspected Covid RT-PCR screening test activity at the station.

The State has also requested the Union government to complete the inspection for the remaining seven medical colleges soon, the minister said.In order to increase the number of medical colleges in the country, the Union government last year gave its nod for the State to start 11 more new medical colleges. 

The Union government had given approval to set up new medical colleges in Tiruvallur, Krishnagiri, Kallakurichi, Nilgiris, Namakkal, Ariyalur, Tirupur, Dindugal, Virudhunagar, Nagapattinam and Ramanathapuram. Now, it has approved student intake in four of these colleges. The State already has 25 medical colleges. 

Screening travellers

The Health Minister said that Kerala has been reporting over 20,000 Covid cases. Passengers from Kerala coming by air, train or by road are allowed into Tamil Nadu only after stringent screening. In the last four days of making the RT-PCR test mandatory for passengers coming from Kerala, tests have been conducted on 277 passengers at the Central railway station.

From August 5, the State has been allowing people from Kerala only if they have RT-PCR negative report taken 72 hours prior to their journey or vaccine certificate (two doses). Tests are conducted on arriving people if Covid symptoms are suspected and if they don’t have either the report or the certificate.

Chennai No 1 among metros

Chennai stands first among metro cities in the country in vaccination coverage, the minister said. 

‘33.43 lakh people in chennai vaccinated’ 

So far, 23.72 lakh people in Chennai have received their first dose and 8.70 lakh people have received the second. Totally, 33.43 lakh people have been vaccinated in Chennai, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said. The State on Sunday had 7.6 lakh doses of vaccine in stock, the minister added.

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