CHENNAI: Four more people, who had returned in the past one month from or through the United Kingdom, tested positive for COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu on Friday.
In the wake of the UK observing a new COVID strain and a flyer testing positive at the Chennai airport recently, the state had decided to screen every single passenger who returned from there.
Addressing reporters here at the King’s Institute, Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan said one patient is from Madurai, two from Thanjavur and one from Chennai’s Mogappair area.
“The Madurai patient had returned on November 28, two from Thanjavur returned on December 16 via Delhi and the Chennai patient had returned on December 17,” he said.
The Health Department had gathered data on a total of 2390 flyers who had returned to Tamil Nadu from the UK or via transit from November 25 to December 21. Of these, 1126 flyers were from Chennai.
“We have tested 1126 samples so far and 440 results have arrived. Five have tested positive in all, including the 25-year-old student who had earlier tested positive,” he said.
Radhakrishnan said that the patient, who has been admitted to King’s Institute, is stable and asymptomatic. “Fifteen of his contacts too are negative while the contacts of three out of the four passengers are negative as well,” he added.
Radhakrishnan said that patients with a travel history have been admitted to a separate wing and are not mixed with the other COVID patients. “We have sent the samples for genomic analysis to Pune and the results are awaited,” he added.
All deans are directly monitoring the patients round-the-clock and they are getting the best treatment, he said.
“People must not fear the new strain and we don’t have research data on severity or pathogenicity of the strain. So far, it is known that the strain has a higher transmissibility,” added Radhakrishnan.
The Health Secretary said that beds would be ramped up across the districts, especially to treat individuals with a travel history. “Presently, all the patients are asymptomatic and are doing fine. However, the discharge policy will be different for them. We may observe them for some more time,” he said.
TN records 1,024 fresh cases, 12 deaths
Tamil Nadu on Friday reported 1,024 fresh COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths, taking the total cases to 8,12,142 and toll to 12,048.
According to the state health bulletin, the active cases are now at 9,129 while people discharged are at 7,90,965 with 1,103 people being discharged on Friday.
With 65,142 RTPCR tests, the total tests done across the 235 testing centres in the state is now at 1,34,95,803.