The number of COVID-19 cases in Cuddalore district touched 37 with seven more persons testing positive on Saturday.
Official sources said that seven persons had returned from the Koyambedu wholesale market in Chennai to Cuddalore in the last few days. The patients have been shifted to the isolation ward at the Rajah Muthiah Medical College and Hospital (RMMCH) in Chidambaram.
An official said that 600 persons, including vegetable vendors and those associated with the Koyambedu market, had returned to Cuddalore over the last two days. In addition, about 100 persons engaged in operation of agricultural implements had returned from neighbouring districts.
All of them have been identified and kept under quarantine on the premises of a private school at Veppur and the Government Arts College in Vriddhachalam. Their throat swabs have been lifted and the test results are awaited.
The district administration has appealed to people from Cuddalore district who have visited neighbouring States and the Koyambedu market to call the local health authorities or the COVID-19 control room, and quarantine themselves.
Eleven persons are under isolation in the RMMCH and the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER).
Twety-six persons have been discharged while 110 persons are under quarantine in various centres in the district.