Madanapalle reports first COVID case, Chittoor city its second

One is software engineer in Chennai, the other visited Koyambedu Market there

Madanapalle town in the district registered its first COVID-19 positive case and Chittoor city its second on Thursday.

The Chittoor police declared the Lalu Gardens locality of the town as red zone.

According to officials, the patient is a resident of Krishna Puram village of neighbouring Gudipala mandal. He visited his business associate in recent days and remained in Chittoor due to the lockdown. It was found that he had been to the Koyambedu Market in Chennai last month. He was shifted to the COVID hospital.

The COVID-19 task force officials rushed to the locality and shifted an associate of the patient to a quarantine facility in Chittoor.

Last week, an Ambur resident who used to frequent Chittoor to see his wife tested positive to the virus.

Software engineer

Meanwhile, according to Deputy SP A. Ravi Manohar Achari, a youth of Danduvaripalle village of Madanapalle mandal, working as a software engineer in Chennai, reached Punganur town by lorry. He went to the local hospital to undergo a test. Owing to a lack of kits, he was referred to the area hospital at Madanapalle and he reached there on a bike. A swab test showed him positive. A sample sent to the virology lab in Tirupati also tested positive. Following this, he was shifted to the Chittoor hospital for isolation.

Meanwhile, another youth of Punganur town, also a software engineer in Chennai and a friend of the infected youth, tested negative, but has been sent to quarantine.

The police issued an alert for the lorry in which the infected youth had travelled to Punganur.