Ten COVID-19 positive patients, all from Puliyangudi in Tenkasi district and undergoing treatment at Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital, were discharged on Monday.
The patients, six men and four women, left for their homes in the evening.
The hospital now has 38 positive cases: 13 each from Tirunelveli city and rural Tirunelveli, 11 from Tenkasi and one from Thoothukudi. Meanwhile, a 63-year-old male from Mayilaadi, who was admitted to Government Medical College Hospital at Aasaaripallam, died on Saturday.
Hospital sources said the man was a cancer patient and terminally ill. He was undergoing treatment in a hospital in Chennai and was brought to Nagercoil and admitted to Government Medical College Hospital. As he displayed COVID-19 symptoms, he was admitted to isolation ward and samples were collected. Even before the result was available, he died and his body was kept in the mortuary. The tests showed that he was positive and his body was cremated at Puliyadi.
The sources maintained that the patient died of “cancer-related health issues”. His daughter, who brought him in an ambulance from Chennai, was under observation in isolation ward.
Also, officials had quarantined 147 persons in Kanniyakumari district. They were rescued from lodges at Kollencode, Kaliyakkavilai and Nagercoil in Maldives by the Indian Navy and brought to Kochi in a naval ship. “Samples have been collected from them and we are awaiting the results,” the sources added.