Chennai, Apr 5 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Wednesday said that there were no Covid-19 clusters in the state but only individual cases with mild symptoms.

Talking to media persons at the Government multi super speciality hospital at Omandurar, he said people are advised to wear masks and to abide by the Covid protocol to prevent surge in infections.

The minister said, "Unlike the Delta and Delta plus variants, Omicron XBB variant has mild impact on the people. Even though the number of fresh cases increased to 198 on Tuesday, there is no hospitalisation requirement in specialist centres."

He advised the people not to panic and added that patients are detected with only mild symptoms and asked people to consult doctors and take medicines according to the advice of the doctor.

Subramanian said that the state health department has directed all the healthcare centres in the state to make masks compulsory for all those who visit the centres including doctors, nurses and paramedics.

The minister launched six new cosmetic products including a herbal face pack, hair oil, herbal soap and herbal anti-dandruff hair oil manufactured by TAMPCOL (Tamil Nadu Medicinal Farm Plants and Herbal Medicine Corporation Ltd).

TAMPCOL already manufactures and distributes 175 varieties of products including 87 Siddha medicines, 43 Ayurvedic medicines, 21 types of Unani medicines and 11 types of veterinary medicines.

Tamil Nadu health department is on an aggressive campaign among the public to abide by the Covid protocol and has directed all the Primary Health Centres to keep a watch on fever or other mild infections spreading in their respective jurisdictions.