The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu rose to 9 on Sunday.
Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar tweeted about the three new patients who had tested positive. In the morning, he said a (25-year-old) woman, who had returned from Spain, had tested positive for COVID-19. Late in the evening, he tweeted that a 64-year-old woman, who had travelled to T.N. from California, was under isolation at the Stanley Medical College, and a 43-year-old man, who had returned from Dubai, was under isolation at the Tirunelveli Medical College. Both had tested positive. All three patients were in a stable condition, he added.
Coimbatore recorded its first COVID-19 case with the 25-year-old woman who had returned from Spain.
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The Health Department has quarantined her father and her sister, while efforts are on to trace the driver of the taxi she had hailed to get to her house from the Coimbatore railway station.
Health Department officials said the woman developed symptoms on March 19. Her sample was taken at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, and she was quarantined at the ESI Hospital on the same day.
They added that the Department was making efforts to obtain details of persons who had travelled with the woman on the flight and were in the same coach as her’s in the train.
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After arriving in Bengaluru on March 17, she boarded a Kerala-bound train to Coimbatore.
The Health Department officials are yet to come to a conclusion about the source of infection of the two Thailand nationals who tested positive in Erode on Saturday. The duo were part of a seven-member group from Thailand.
A 49-year-old man from the same group was admitted to CMCH on March 15. He tested negative on March 17 but died of complications from diabetic nephropathy and septicemia the next day.
“The two Thailand nationals, who tested positive on Saturday, developed symptoms on their 18th day in India. Symptoms are expected to become evident before a maximum period of 14 days,” an official said.
2,05,396 screened
A medical bulletin said 2,05,396 passengers had been screened at airports in Chennai, Tiruchi, Madurai and Coimbatore till date. As many as 9,424 passengers were under home quarantine for 28 days.
Currently, 198 asymptomatic passengers from highly-affected countries have been quarantined in facilities near airport and 54 persons were under hospital isolation.
The Health department has lifted 443 samples from the passengers and sent them for testing at King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research, Guindy, Chennai, the National Institute of Virology, Pune, besides the Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories in Theni, Thiruvarur, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore and Salem and the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
A 20-year-old passenger with travel history to Delhi and a 21-year-old passenger with travel history to Ireland, who tested positive for COVID-19, are stable and under observation in RGGGH, Chennai.
At present, the State has 2,069 beds in isolation wards.