COIMBATORE: After several months, Covid-19 cases in Coimbatore witnessed a sharp rise with 40 people testing positive on Tuesday, which is double of the daily average.
Health officials identified a Covid cluster in a factory in Kinathukadavu. Samples were taken from six persons out of the 100 workers in the industry who were symptomatic and sent to labs for RT-PCR test. All the samples were positive for the infection, sources said. Testing is in progress and contacts of the workers are being traced, sources added.
As of Tuesday, numbers released by the health department revealed that around 41 individuals tested positive in the district, taking the tally of active cases to 146. Seventeen patients who were undergoing treatment at various hospitals were discharged on Tuesday. According to the report, Coimbatore district recorded a test positivity rate of 9%. Out of 200 persons tested in the district, around 18 persons’ results returned positive.
With cases rising in Kerala, health department officials are screening people arriving from the state at the border. Officials are in touch with their Kerala counterparts and sharing information on people from Coimbatore who tested positive in Kerala.
They are traced and their contacts are being tested to contain the spread of infection, sources said. Deputy Director of Health Services (DDHS) for the Coimbatore district Dr P Aruna said, “There has been no other cluster identified in the Coimbatore district and the Kinathukadavu industry is one only cluster which we have identified so far. The officials have been given clear instructions to monitor whether the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) are followed in the industries and factories across the district. The health department will be increasing the number of tests in the district by 100 and the number of tests will be increased even further depending on the situation.”
Further, she said although wearing a face mask can prevent the spread, no one has been following it, adding workers with symptoms such as fever, body pain, sore throat, cold and sneezing must stay at their homes in order to prevent the illness from spreading to others.