Chennai, Apr 22 (IANS): As Tamil Nadu's fresh cases touched 11,681 with 53 deaths, the state's core Covid panel will meet on Thursday to discuss future strategy to contain the pandemic. Tamil Nadu health secretary, scientists and district collectors will be part of the Core committee meet which is likely to take place virtually on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the active cases in Tamil Nadu touched 84,361 cases and the state has stepped up the number of daily tests to 1.1 lakh samples. The occupancy in hospitals is now 75 per cent and the number of fatalities in the state has touched 13,252 so far. The state is now reporting an average of 10,016 daily cases and 41 deaths while there were 6,263 fresh cases and 21 deaths on April 14.

Tamil Nadu Covid panel expert committee member Prabhdeep Kaur who is also the Deputy Director, National Institute of Epidemiology in a statement said that cases have been growing in an exponential manner. While speaking to IANS, Kaur said, "People must cooperate by wearing face medical masks and avoiding all non-essential activities. We must do this to protect ourselves, our community and society at large."

The health department is preparing charts, graphs, statistics and brainstorming is taking place to evolve new and fresh strategies to stop Covid from spreading further.