Fifteen persons in SPSR Nellore district who visited the Koyambedu market yard in neighbouring Tamil Nadu have tested positive for coronavirus in the last 24 hours.
With this, the number of confirmed cases has rose to 126 in the district, with 45 patients being treated in the COVID-19 Isolation ward. Three patients have succumbed to the pandemic so far.
With Thursday’s development, Nellore district has achieved a dubious distinction of recording the highest number of fresh cases in the State on a single day, health officials said.
Authorities were on their toes implementing the cluster containment strategy in the affected areas with a view to avert the spread of the pandemic. Sullurpeta, roughly 80 km from Chennai, accounted for a maximum of nine new cases followed by Nellore (3), Nayudupeta (2) and Ojili (1). The lockdown was implemented strictly in the affected areas.
Over 100 primary contacts of traders who frequently visit the Koyambedu vegetable and fruit market were subjected to testing. It is feared that more persons who have been regularly visiting Chennai are carrying the virus.
In painstaking efforts, police tracked the mobile phones of all the traders in Sullurpeta and other affected places. Based on the call data records, the traders and their primary contacts were identified and tested. Many of them denied having visited Chennai, official sources said.
The first set of cases reported in the district was of people who had visited New Delhi. Now, the Chennai connection has led to a fresh rise in positive cases even as 78 persons who were undergoing treatment for COVID-19 were discharged.
No fresh cases were reported in Prakasam district on Thursday, with only three persons still undergoing treatment. Sixty patients were discharged after making a full recovery. Officials in the district have embarked on an elaborate exercise of identifying those who have visited Koyambedu in recent times.