A staff nurse at the Government General Hospital here along with eight of her family members has been put under quarantine on Sunday morning and the entire Obuldevnagar, where she resides, has been declared a containment zone.

She is among the 15 GGH doctors and paramedical personnel who have been quarantined after they were identified as the persons who treated the third COVID-19 positive case, a 60-year-old man, normally for four days before his status was known following a laboratory test.

The samples of all the 23 paramedical staff and the family members of the third positive case would be taken after four days as per the normal procedure, District Medical and Health Officer K.V.N.S. Anil Kumar said.

Meanwhile, the Anantapur Municipal Corporation has begun a sanitation drive in the area after blocking all the roads to the colony. Police personnel have erected crossbars at all junctions and restricted movement of people.

Treated as normal case

The third positive case turned out to be the second or third contact of a 70-year-old woman, who had died after visiting Mecca and meeting friends and relatives in Hindupur. This person was originally sent from Hindupur to the GGH, Anantapur on March 31 as a normal patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a common lung disease.

The patient was treated in two or three wards and in the Intensive Care Unit before he was suspected to be COVID-19 positive and transferred to a special isolation room. A sample was taken only on Friday, though he has been in the hospital since the early hours of Wednesday. The result of the second sample, which came six hours after his death, confirmed his COVID-19 positive status.