NAGAPATTINAM: Sixty staff of the Government Tiruvarur Medical College Hospital have been placed under quarantine after a 13-year-old boy from Nagapattinam tested positive for COVID-19.
He had undergone a surgery for appendicitis in the hospital recently.
The boy from Veerapogam village is a Class 9 student tested positive a week ago. He visited the hospital for an appendectomy on April 11.
Sixty health workers who were directly or indirectly in contact with the boy during his stay have been advised to quarantine.
“There are about 20 medical staff, including 10 doctors, who treated, operated and attended the boy. There are also nurses who took care of the boy. All their results have been negative till now, but we will test them again as there are chances of testing positive later,” said Dr J Muthukumaran, Dean, Government Tiruvarur Medical College Hospital.
“We are still investigating how he contracted the virus. There are as many chances of him contracting the virus in the hospital as contracting it in his village,” said a senior health official.