Twenty-eight persons, including three children, have tested positive for COVID-19 in the same apartment complex at Madannapet area adding bulk to the ever increasing number of coronavirus cases from GHMC area.
Shared on social media platforms, the news is spreading shock waves across Madannapet and surrounding areas, and has had the entire city in the grip of fear psychosis.
Of the 28, twenty-three belonged to the same apartment complex, while five others from other areas stayed here as visitors.
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According to information shared by sources, one person who approached a corporate hospital in Jubilee Hills with COVID-19 symptoms, has tested positive for the virus. Subsequently, his daughter too tested positive.
Following this, residents of the apartment, most of whom are educated and employed, volunteered for testing. A total of 55 samples were collected and sent for testing, of which 28 have turned out positive for coronavirus.
An 11-month-old baby is the youngest among the three children who tested positive. Most of the patients are asymptomatic, informed officials who are unable to determine the infection trail. The index case is that of a software engineer, who stayed indoors during the lockdown, they say.
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However, relatives and friends from other apartment complexes in Malakpet might have carried it here, they surmise. Samples have been collected and sent for testing from those complexes too, while the Health teams are conducting fever survey in all surrounding areas.
In one more textbook case of the COVID spread, the virus has travelled to two areas in city located in opposite corners, from a hospital’s dialysis unit. The index case here is a person residing in Alwal, who visited his ailing mother at the hospital and stayed overnight. After returning from there, he reported sick with fever and other symptoms, and tested positive for COVID. Subsequently, his wife and two children too tested positive. Taking cue from his hospital visit, officials collected samples from both his parents who stayed at R.K.Puram, his brother’s family of three at Nagole, and his sister’s in Prabhathnagar of Kothapet. His parents, brother’s family and sister tested positive for the virus.
Meanwhile, the virus spread continues unabated in Jiyaguda, the hotspot in the city for COVID with strong evidence of community transmission. The number of cases here has jumped from 68 to 90 within a week, with the latest being that of a constable from Kulsumpura police station who had been on COVID surveillance duty at Jiyaguda.
A resident of Mansoorabad, the constable has a total of 47 primary contacts, including family members at Mansoorabad and Nalgonda, and office contacts. Samples have been collected from all to be sent for testing.