Coimbatore rural SP tests +ve as district logs 490 new cases

Coimbatore: After a lull in Covid-19 cases for more than a week, Sunday proved to be a shocker for health authorities as well as residents after 490 people tested positive, pushing the district case tally to 22,156.
Even as fresh Covid cases shot up, a senior official in the district tested positive. Coimbatore rural SP Ara Arularasu gave his samples for testing after developing mild symptoms on Saturday and the results turned out to be Covid positive on Sunday. He has opted for home isolation even as samples have been collected from his family members and other staff at his office for testing.
Fresh Covid cases which touched about 600 ten days back had gradually dipped and were hovering below 400 on September 11.
“People’s cooperation is very important in this battle againt Covid-19. Anyone having even mild symptoms should get themselves tested and isolate if we have to control the spread,’’ said collector K Rajamani. On the administration’s part, health authorities in the city as well as the district are taking all efforts, he said. “On an average, 8,000 samples are being tested in Coimbatore everyday, out of which more than 6,000 is from the city limits,’’ he said.
Deaths due to Covid appeared to be under control as only four deaths were reported on Sunday, taking the net toll in the district to 353. There was a dip in the number of active cases too, with 554 people discharged on a single day leaving the number of people under treatment to 3,495.
Neighbouring Tirupur too recorded a whopping 291 new cases, touching a total of 4,748 cases. Tirupur had showed signs of receding numbers in the last week but on Sunday recorded a sharp rise, which officials attribute to opening up of public places and transportation.
There was a similar trend across the region with Salem registering a rise, albeit a marginal one compared to the past few days. The district had 309 fresh cases on Sunday while the numbers remained less than 300 for the past few days. “We are conducting 136 special camps everyday in Salem city to bring down the cases,’’ said Salem corporation commissioner R Sadheesh.