TIRUCHY: In the first case of COVID-19 in Tiruchy, a 24-year-old youth who returned from Dubai tested positive on Thursday. He is being shifted from the isolation ward to a separate ward in the Tiruchy MGMGH for treatment.
He arrived in Tiruchy airport from Dubai on a direct flight on 22nd March. While screening at the airport, he exhibited symptoms and was taken to the isolation ward directly.
His sample was taken on 23rd March and sent to the VRDL lab meant for coronavirus testing at Thiruvarur medical college.
A native of Erode, he went to Dubai 45 days ago and worked as a manual laborer. Sources said that he got sick in Dubai on March 16 and went to a doctor there. As he exhibited signs of dry cough despite treatment, he was asked to go back.
The coronavirus control room in Tiruchy was busy collecting the names and addresses of the travellers who came in the same flight along with the patient from the immigration list.
Sources said that there were about 80 passengers from different districts of Tamil Nadu and the respective health departments would be informed to take the next course of action.
Moreover, the doctors, nurses and sanitary workers who were attending on the patient in the isolation ward would also be checked for symptoms.
This is the first positive case of COVID-19 at the Tiruchy MGMGH.
There are 13 people at the isolation ward currently. Their samples can now be tested at the MGMGH lab itself as it has got the facilities for it.