With the vantage location and completed infrastructure, Virudhunagar Government Medical College (VGMC) stands a good chance to host the function for inaugurating all the 11 new government medical colleges across the State by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin in the second week of January, 2022.
After inspecting various buildings that have come up on Virudhunagar Master Complex premises on Tuesday, Health Minister Ma. Subramanian told reporters that various factors were in favour of the VGMC to host the inaugural function. He said the building work had been fully completed. Besides, its location along Madurai-Tirunelveli highway, vast expanse of land and huge auditorium with a seating capacity for 1,000 persons were taken into consideration, Mr. Subramanian said.
He inspected the buildings along with Revenue Minister K. K. S. S. R. Ramachandran and Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu. “If this venue is selected, the inaugural function for all the 11 new medical colleges will be held here,” the Health Minister said.
On Omicron
With regard to Omicron infection, Mr. Subramanian said that out of the 98 passengers who tested positive upon arrival from ‘at risk and non-risk’ countries, only one had been detected to have been infected by Omicron. The results of genome sequencing for 13 samples had been received from laboratories of the Union government and other results were awaited. However, he said, 70 patients admitted to government hospitals and seven at private hospitals (the others have been discharged) were all asymtomatic. The health condition of even the Omicron-infected patient was stable.
Mr. Subramanian said both Covishield and Covaxin were effective in fighting against even Omicron. Stating that 84% of eligible persons had taken the first dose of vaccine and 55% the second dose, the Minister appealed to the 90 lakh people who were due to get the second dose to do it at the mega vaccination camps to be held on the next two Sundays.
On temporary workers who were hired to fight COVID-19 during the first two waves, the Health Minister said that they would be given additional weightage in recruitment in the Health Department.
MLAs A. R. R. Srinivasan, S. Thangapandian and A. R. R. Raghuraman, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan, Virudhunagar Collector J. Meghanath Reddy, District Revenue Officer R. Mangalaramasubramanian and medical college Dean J. Sangumani were present.