Residents of the Railway Colony in Erode are currently being monitored by health officials and are under home quarantine. The Erode hospital, where the doctor previously worked, was also disinfected and closed.
Patient attended party?
As the doctor was being transferred from Erode to Coimbatore, her colleagues threw her a farewell party. “The party happened on March 22, and around 38 people took part in it. The same day, she was dropped in Coimbatore by a colleague. We have collected the details of all these people for contact tracing. We have also informed about this to our counterparts in Erode,” said the district collector K Rajamani. The remaining four patients are in Erode and have been admitted to the IRT Hospital. All four of them reportedly travelled to Delhi. Now, there are totally 10 positive cases in Erode, confirmed Deputy Director of Health Services, Soundammal. “They returned from Delhi, where they went for a conference, just before the curfew,” Soundammal said.
“We also suspect they were in contact with the Thai nationals who were staying at the Sultanpet Mosque. They have been isolated, and their families are under home quarantine,” said Soundammal. She said the Thai nationals were being provided with their local cuisine. The collector said a total of 51 people from Coimbatore could have participated in the event which the Thai men attended in the third week of March. While, 28 are in Mettupalayam, the remaining persons are from Coimbatore, Pollachi, and Anaimalai, said district collector Rajamani.
“We have found the people and put 49 of them under home quarantine. The remaining two persons were admitted at ESI hospital as they had symptoms of the virus,” Rajamani stated. He appealed the people who came in contact with the 51 persons to check their health condition in order to prevent further transmission of the disease. Apart from this there are 82 persons isolated at IRT Perundurai Medical College who are suspected to have symptoms of COVID-19.
Under control
Speaking to press here Beela Rajesh said containment activities are being undertaken in full swing across the State. In Chennai, one lakh people have been diagnosed, of which 10 persons were found to have high fever and breathing difficulty. In Tirupur 27,725 people were covered, and 50 persons were found to have cough and flu symptoms. In Salem 80,000 people were covered among them 20 with symptoms were picked up. The Health Secretary further said all these people with symptoms identified in the containment plan will be quarantined and samples will be tested for COVID-19, if needed.
“This will ensure the infection doesn’t spread in the community from the COVID-19 positive cases.” She also said that so far five people have been cured and discharged from the hospital.About tracking people who came from foreign countries from February 15. Beela Rajesh said, the Health Department identified 43,538 such people and district collectors are monitoring them. Meanwhile, a media bulletin issued by the Directorate of Public Health, “As on date, including passengers from other countries, there are 43,537 passengers under home quarantine for 28 days.”
Three discharged
The Health Department discharged three patients from hospital after they recovered from COVID-19. Among the three is a couple from Porur in Chennai, who recently returned from the US. The third is the Delhi man who travelled here by train. They were discharged from hospital after two consecutive mandatory tests returned negative. Two patients are husband and wife, a 64-year-old woman and 74-year-old man from Porur. They had travelled from USA via Singapore to Chennai airport on March 20. The officials traced 108 of their contacts. The woman was tested positive on March 22 and her husband on March 24.