A few Health Department officials who went to a village near Kayathur in Thoothukudi to pick up persons suspected of being carriers of COVID-19 were heckled by a group of villagers on Saturday. Some residents even attempted to manhandle the driver of the vehicle in which the officials were travelling.
A day after the incident, it transpired that two of the five family members of a COVID-19 patient, whom the health officials eventually managed to shift to the Kovilpatti Government Hospital, had also tested positive for the virus.
With this, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Thoothukudi district has gone up to 11. “The test results of 11 other persons who are under institutionalised quarantine are awaited,” Thoothukudi Collector Sandeep Nanduri said.
The two new cases are the wife and son of the COVID-19 patient.
The Thoothukudi district police have booked 12 persons for heckling the Health Inspector of the Vellankottai Primary Health Centre when he, along with a medical officer, a few nurses and paramedical staff, tried to take the patient’s kin to the GH in an ambulance as a precautionary measure on Saturday.
The villagers had objected to the officials taking photographs of the people who were being taken to the GH, a police source said.
But after the police and revenue officials explained to them the need to keep such people in quarantine in the hospital, the villagers relented, according to the police.
The hecklers were booked for abusing government officials and preventing them from discharging their duty and for criminal intimidation. They were also booked under provisions of the Disaster Management Act and the Epidemic Diseases Act, Superintendent of Police Arun Balagopalan said.
“Around 2,500 persons are under home quarantine in the district,” the Collector said.
