Two distant relatives of a COVID-19 victim, a 70-year-old woman from Gauribidanur in Karnataka who died last week, tested positive on Tuesday.
They were quarantined last week along with 29 other close relatives of the woman, but all others tested negative. While the first positive case from Anantapur is a 10-year-old boy, the second one is a 34-year-old woman and both hail from Lepakshi.
Confirming this, District Collector Gandham Chandrudu said both were relatives of the Gauribidanur woman who went to Mecca and later visited the families of the two persons, who have now tested positive.
Cause for concern
While 31 persons related to the old woman were quarantined at Hindupur Government Hospital, another 145 persons are also being monitored as they had come in contact with the deceased woman in Anantapur district during her visit to Balaji Hospital in Hindupur. Meanwhile, the district administration has declared two colonies - Tipu Colony and Dange Colony - ‘Red Zones’, where the two persons who tested positive reside. The district medical authorities, however, said both the persons have very mild symptoms.
However, the cause for utmost concern is the identification of 78 persons as COVID-19 suspects and 29 of them have been quarantined at the Cluster Livelihood Resource Centre (CLRC) in Anantapur. Out of the 78 persons, 49 had attended the Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in Delhi.
The remaining persons are either family members or have contacts with the persons who came from Delhi.
Four of the 49 have not come to Anantapur. One has migrated to Hyderabad, while the other is in Khammam. One is still in Delhi and the fourth is in Bihar. Samples have been collected from all the 29 persons, who were quarantined on Tuesday morning. Samples of the other 45 persons will be obtained as and when they reach the quarantine facility at CLRC in Rapthadu, according to officials.
