Chennai,  The Tamil Nadu Health Department is keen on implementing stringent measures including wearing of masks, social distancing, and increasing the volume of tests, besides massive vaccination drives as 15 districts show fresh spike in Covid-19 cases.

On Thursday, fresh cases reported from these 15 districts showed varied increase of upto 54 cases.

Thanjavur reported 248 new cases which are 51 more than that reported on Wednesday. Madurai too, reported a slight hike cases. Tiruvannamalai, Kallakurichi, Perambalur, Villupuram, Nilgiris, Sivaganga, and Tirupathur also showed increase in cases on Thursday.

The state health department has already called upon the district administrations to immediately focus on the clusters or areas that are contributing to the new cases.

While the state has been witnessing a steady decline in Covid cases -- both active and fresh cases -- the government has been on a massive vaccination drive across the state. The slight increase in fresh cases have led the health department to send riders to the government for implementing stringent measures again.

State Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan told IANS: "As our neighbouring states like Maharashtra and Kerala are showing a slight increase in cases, Tamil Nadu goes for focused disease containment."

Epidemiologists have already recommended focused and intensified testing as any fallout of relaxations would only reflect after a few days.

The focus is on workplace intervention strategies -- testing, screening and identification of clusters.

Suchithra V. Menon, an epidemiologist working with a research centre in Chennai told IANS: "Focus should be on clusters, whether small or big and intensified and focused testing must be conducted. The state can use antigen testing methods also to increase the speed of the results."

The state health, police, and revenue departments have geared up together to ensure that people follow Covid protocols as doctors recommend that the basic principles have to be adhered to.