COIMBATORE: Nine patients, including three pregnant women, who came for different treatments to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH), tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday.
Apart from this, two persons from Kovaipudur and seven returnees from Delhi also tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of cases on Saturday to 18.
Following their test results, the infected patients were transferred to ESI Hospital, while the health staff, who treated them, were isolated in the hospital facility.
According to the CMCH officials, among the nine patients who had earlier come to the hospital, five are the natives of Coimbatore, three are from Tirupur, and one from Virudhunagar.
All the nine patients were earlier admitted to the isolation ward set up at CMCH to provide treatment until their COVID-19 test results arrived.
Hospital Dean P Kalidas said, "For the past few days, we have been following a procedure that all patients referred from the private hospitals and those who come to CMCH for treatment or surgery shall undergo RT-PCR test. They shall be treated at isolation cubicles till the time the result arrives."
It was reported that among the three pregnant women who tested positive, a 19-year-old from Virudhungar gave birth to a low birth weight baby, a 32-year-old woman from Tirupur gave birth to a still-born as the woman suffered from bladder exstrophy.
One more pregnant woman (24-year-old) with heart disease is the primary contact of the two patients -- a 48-year-old and a 25-year-old from Kovaipudur.
"There were also patients with heart disease, HIV, breast cancer, among the nine positive cases. We have informed the health department who have begun the contact tracing process," Kalidas added.
As many as 52 health staff including doctors, postgraduate doctors, nurses, and sanitary workers were placed under isolation. Seven passengers, who arrived here from New Delhi on Friday, tested positive for the infection.