A Thoothukudi man, who hitch-hiked his way from Maharashtra and collapsed from starvation near Kaveripattinam in Krishnagiri district, has tested positive for COVID 19. The 34-year-old was intercepted near the Kaveripattinam check-post in a fragile state, before he was directed to the Kaveripattinam Government Hospital by the police, on Sunday.
The man was given first aid at the Kaveripattinam Government Hospital since he was visibly weak from starvation, said a hospital source. A doctor had also collected the man’s swab sample in view of his travel from from Maharashtra. He was later referred to the Government Headquarters Hospital, where he was admitted to the isolation ward on May 17. The swab results were out on Tuesday and the man was found COVID-19 positive.
The man had left his home in Sathankulam in Thoothukudi for Mumbai three months ago over a domestic tussle, according to his travel account to the hospital authorities. Left without food or money with the start of the lockdown, he was helped onto a southward-bound truck by a policeman in Mumbai. The man had hitch-hiked his way across the two States before a truck dropped him off at Athibelle at the inter-state border between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
However, the cause of concern for the authorities was his travel trajectory from the border into Krishnagiri. The man has claimed to have taken rides from two-wheeler riders for some part of the way. When he could find no vehicles that would give him a ride, he had walked on the highway till he took the bypass into Kaveripattinam, where he was found on the verge of collapsing.
According to a medical department source, the man was asymptomatic and was frail from starvation. Otherwise, his condition was stable, said the source.
