Tiruppur
Amid the aggressive second wave of COVID-19 in the State, the Health Department recently detected a cluster of cases in Karaipudur village panchayat in Palladam Block of Tiruppur district, where over 70 residents have tested positive.
According to Block Medical Officer N. Sudarvizhi, a woman aged around 60, who sold milk to the residents of N.S.K. Nagar in the village panchayat, tested positive last week. This caused the Health Department to organise a camp at the locality for lifting the swab samples of around 100 residents as part of the contact tracing process. “Out of the 100 samples, 76 turned out to be positive on Monday,” she said.
Following the detection of the cluster, the Health officials closed as many as five streets of N.S.K Nagar, which has around 350 residences, on Monday to curb the spread of COVID-19 to other residents. Out of the 76 COVID-19 patients, 10 were referred to Tiruppur Government Medical College Hospital for treatment and the rest were advised home quarantine, Ms. Sudarvizhi said on Wednesday. All the patients were said to be stable and were experiencing only mild symptoms, she noted.
Palladam Block has five primary health centres (PHC), including Arulpuram PHC that caters to the residents of Karaipudur village panchayat, she said. “People are keen to take the vaccine shots, but we are facing shortage in all centres at the moment,” the Block Medical Officer said, noting that only around 7,000 eligible beneficiaries have been vaccinated at least once in the Block.
District Collector K. Vijayakarthikeyan told The Hindu on Wednesday that the district administration had been stepping up testing in rural parts where three or more COVID-19 positive cases were present. “We have tested almost all in the particular village [Karaipudur] to control the spread,” he said, adding that steps would be taken to closely monitor “potential super spreaders” such as milk vendors in rural areas of Tiruppur district.