Five new COVID-19 positive cases have been reported in three districts, including Madurai, in the southern region on Sunday.
Madurai and Tenkasi districts reported two cases each and Kanniyakumari registered one, keeping the health teams on their toes. They were engaged in cordoning off the areas around the residences of the positive patients since Sunday noon. Police were deployed in those locations as they were identified as containment zones.
Madurai Collector T G Vinay convened a meeting with the crisis management team members on the modalities to contain the spread of COVID-19 virus ahead of the relaxation of the curfew for some sections in the trade and industry.
In a relief to the officials and police, Thoothukudi and Sivaganga districts had discharged all the patients on Saturday and the respective Collectors are focussing more on containing the pandemic. Tirunelveli district continues to keep its vigil on seven patients undergoing treatment at its medical college hospital.
Officials in Dindigul district, where 81 patients had tested positive, had successfully discharged 72 so far. There was no fresh case on Sunday, Collector M Vijayalakshmi said.
After tightening its checkposts, the Virudhunagar district administration had no new case, but the Collector and health officials are concentrating on increasing the random sampling activities.
Though the medical bulletin released by the State Health department in Chennai indicated that Kanniyakumari district had one positive case, the doctors at Asaripallam Government Medical College Hospital maintained that the patient, a resident of Kulasekaram, had actually been to Chennai last week. She was selected as lab assistant and hence gone there to join duty, but tested positive to COVID-19 virus. According to the doctors, the patient's family lived in Kulasekaram and that they all tested negative. Hence, she was admitted in Omandurar Government Hospital in Chennai.
A health official said that the patient had given her native place address and hence it was added to Kanniyakumari district following which the confusion ended.
In Tenkasi, out of the 40 patients, 37 were from Puliyankudi. In the fresh case, a 42-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man tested positive and they too hailed from Puliyankudi. Collector Arun Sundar Dayalan said that the district borders had been cordoned off and only after strict screening and quarantine, outsiders were permitted.