The Health Department and the district administration have stepped up caution in Coimbatore after a Kancheepuram native and 12 persons in the neighbouring Kerala tested positive for COVID-19.
According to G. Ramesh Kumar, Deputy Director of Health Services, Coimbatore, there was no room for fear but people have to be cautious.
A. Nirmala, Dean of Government Medical College and ESI Hospital, said that the isolation ward in the hospital was equipped to quarantine persons who come up with symptoms of the viral infection.
The hospital’s medical superintendent Ravikumar said that the staff were demonstrating hand washing techniques to patients and their attendants every day since the virus spread was reported in the country.
The office of the Deputy Director of Health Services was maintaining adequate stock of masks, gloves and disinfectant solution to be distributed to healthcare facilities.
The Department has issued advisory to the management of malls, theatres, shopping centres, supermarkets, marriage halls, auditoriums, schools, offices and other places witnessing movement of people in large numbers to clean floors and surfaces like railings with disinfectant solution.
According to K. Kolandasamy, Director of Public Health -Tamil Nadu, frequent washing of hands with soap, covering mouth with handkerchief while coughing or sneezing, avoiding contact with people having fever or related symptoms of COVID-19, avoiding handshakes while greeting others, and avoiding touching eyes or nose or mouth with unwashed hands were the utmost personal hygiene practices to be followed as precaution.
Health Department officials said that identifying persons who are coming to the district from COVID-19 affected places was their prime focus. The Department staff were also creating awareness in buses that ply between various points in Tamil Nadu and Kerala through Coimbatore.
At the Coimbatore International Airport, Health officials are checking passengers who come from foreign countries. Coimbatore has international flight connectivity to Sharjah, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
Passengers who arrive from these countries are being checked with thermal scanners. Boards have been kept at the airport asking passengers to inform health officials if they have travelled in COVID-19 affected countries.
“The checking at airport should be intensified to identify persons who come from foreign countries to other cities in India and then take domestic connecting flight to Coimbatore. Thermal scanner can only detect if a passenger has fever. An infected person who is also asymptomatic may go undetected,” a security official at the airport said.
Thrissur man tests negative
Meanwhile, a Thrissur native who was quarantined in the special ward at the Government Medical College and ESI Hospital with symptoms of COVID-19 on Monday has tested negative. He had come to Coimbatore from Malaysia via Tiruchi international airport.
