A 43-year-old person of Kumbakonam who had tested positive for COVID-19 virus during the last week of March, was discharged from Thanjavur Medical College Hospital on Thursday.
The patient, working in an establishment at West Indies had landed in Chennai on March 18. From there he took a public transport to reach his residence at Kumbakonam via Villupuram. After arriving home, he suffered from high body temperature and cough and availed treatment at a private clinic in Kumbakonam.
As the symptoms did not subside, he was referred to the Thanjavur Medical College hospital on March 25 where he was admitted to the special ward for treating COVID-19 patients. A swab test turned out to be positive on March 28.
He was discharged after three subsequent tests were negative and a week of observation period, sources said.
The Zonal Officer, COVID-19 Prevention Exercise, Thanjavur Zone, M. S. Shanmugam, the Collector, M. Govinda Rao, the TMC Dean, Kumudha Lingaraj and others greeted him by clapping their hands when he stepped out of the COVID-19 special ward building in the TMC hospital premises.
Speaking to reporters later, Mr. Shanmugam, Commissioner, State Archaeology Department, said that tracing of the third-level contacts of COVID 19 patients has been taken up in the district.
Around 75 first-level contacts of COVID-19 patients in the district and the second-level of 250 persons who were in contact with the first-level contacts were subjected to the COVID-19 test, already. Though most of them tested negative, the District Health Department had taken up the tracing of the third-level contacts - ie those who were in contact with the 250 persons, he said.
The purpose of tracing the third-level contacts was to ensure that the transmission of COVID-19 virus, if any, was cut off completely, official sources said.
