817 new COVID cases found in TN; free rations to continue in June

In the biggest single day spike, Tamil Nadu reported 817 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday (May 27), which included 138 returnees from Maharashtra, pushing the infection count to 18,545 while six more deaths were recorded.

With three men and three women succumbing to the virus, the fatalities touched 133. Of the people who tested positive today, 508 were men and 309 women while the active cases stood at 8,500, the health department said in a bulletin.

The positive cases also included a person from neighbouring Kerala.

11,231 samples were tested on May 27.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Wednesday announced that free ration for family cardholders will continue for the month of June and that tokens for obtaining essential commodities will be distributed at the doorsteps of the beneficiaries.

The chief minister, who had announced free essential commodities to all the family cardholders in the state during the COVID-19 lockdown in April and May, said the relief measures would be continued for June too.

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In a statement, Palaniswami said cardholders are entitled to get a kg of tur dal and sugar besides a litre of edible oil through fair price shops and that these will be distributed from June 1 onwards.

Accordingly, tokens will be distributed at doorsteps of the cardholders between May 29 and 31.

The state government has announced to double the rice entitlement of all rice-drawing ration cardholders in Tamil Nadu for the next three months, to mitigate the hardships due to the ongoing lockdown, in alignment with the governments policy of universal public distribution system (UPDS).

The government has set aside around ₹219 crore towards the provision of tur dal, edible oil and sugar, free of cost, to all ration card holders in June.

There are a total of about 2.01 crore rice-drawing cards, of which priority household (PHH) cards are 1.15 crore and non-priority household (NPHH) cards, around 86 lakh. “The members of the public are requested to wear masks and also maintain social distancing whole obtaining the essential commodities,” Palaniswami appealed.

(With inputs from agencies)