COVID-19: 22 more persons test positive

Tiruppur district sees 35 new cases, total now 60

April 12, 2020 10:54 pm | Updated 10:54 pm IST

The number of persons who tested positive for the COVID-19 virus in Coimbatore touched 119, with the addition of 22 persons on Sunday. Of the 22 new cases, 17 were from Coimbatore Corporation limits, three from Zamin Uthukuli and two from Anamalai.

Those who had tested positive in the city included four of a family in R.S. Puram. A woman and her daughter from the family were passengers in an aircraft that also carried persons who returned after attending the Delhi event.

At the time of leaving the airport, they did not show COVID-19 symptoms and therefore were asked to stay indoors, in quarantine. After almost 12 days, after the woman developed fever she went to a private hospital.

The doctors there had asked her to go to the Government Medical College and ESI Hospital but she returned home. Meanwhile, one of her family members, a 57-year-old man, died on April 8 and the family had cremated the body.

Sources said the family had not alerted the authorities to the death of the 57-year-old man, given its quarantine status. And, now the administration had reasons to suspect that he could have died due to COVID-19.

During the course of interaction with the family, the sources said that the person who died on April 8 had two days earlier consulted a doctor over phone. While the doctor had asked him to go to the ESI hospital after he had complained of fever, cold and diarrhoea, he did not and died thereafter.

The sources said the administration was in the process of identifying the persons who attended the cremation. In all, 12 had attended and now the task was identify all those other than the family.

As for the persons who had returned after attending the Delhi event and their family members, the administration said it had tested 194 family members and found 58 persons positive.

The 58 included those who were declared positive on Sunday.

Now the administration’s task was to look for those who might have come into contact with the family and test them as well, the sources added.

The Coimbatore Corporation officials said they had added R.S. Puram to the list of containment zones after a family had tested positive. It had already declared Ukkadam, Kovaipudur, Karumbukkadai, Kavundampalayam, Kuniamuthur and a few other places as containment zones, to restrict the movement of people.

In Coimbatore rural, containment zones were declared in parts of Mettupalayam, Anamalai, Pollachi, Annur, Madukarai and Zamin Uthukuli.

In a major spike, Tiruppur district saw the confirmation of 35 COVID-19 positive cases on Sunday, bringing the total number of active cases to 60.

With only 26 cases till Saturday of which one has been discharged, the increase on Sunday propelled the district to the fourth position in the State in terms of number of positive COVID-19 cases.

Sources in the Health Department said that all the 35 cases were the contacts of patients who tested positive for COVID-19. A total of 11 cases were from the Tiruppur Corporation limit, 15 from Avinashi Block, seven from Dharapuram and two were from Mangalam Block.

All the 35 patients have been admitted at Government Medical College and ESI Hospital in Coimbatore for treatment. The number of containment zones in Tiruppur district remains as 10 as the new cases were not from outside of the existing zones, according to the sources.

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