Chennai, Jun 16 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian said on Monday that the kids whose parents had tested positive for Covid-19 but turned negative while dying are also eligible for the Rs 5 lakh aid announced by the state government for children who lost their parents to the pandemic.

Speaking to reporters at Tiruvottriyur on Tuesday, Subramanian said that these children would be included in the scheme on a compassionate basis.

"The drive to identify the eligible children is already in progress," he said.

Subramanian was answering to a query that there are several cases wherein people tested positive, but died after getting cured and testing negative, and whether the children of such people would be eligible for the Rs 5 lakh assistance announced by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.

The minister said that the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) had formulated the guidelines for reporting Covid-19 deaths, adding that sometimes people die due to many comorbidities and not because of the virus itself.

Subramanian said, "People come to hospitals after testing positive and they get cured. But later they might die owing to other comorbidities, which need not necessarily be directly related to the virus. I will apprise the Central government of these factors and about people losing out on the benefits due to the way the deaths were reported."

He also pointed out that former Lok Sabha MP H. Vasanthakumar and renowned singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, who had passed away, had tested negative when they died.

Meanwhile, the minister also informed that L&T would set up oxygen generators with a capacity of 1,000 litres per minute at five localities of Tamil Nadu.

He said the first oxygen generator has already been set up at the Royapettah General Hospital at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore, while the remaining generators would be set up in the days to come.