2 dead, toll hits 22; total 1,755 as city reports 52 new cases

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:25.04.2020

Two senior citizens died of Covid-19 on Friday taking the state’s death toll to 22, even as total cases touched 1,755 with 72 more testing positive. Chennai continued to be the epicenter of the infection with 52 new cases. More than 18 frontline workers such as nurses, hospital workers, sanitary and conservancy staff, policemen, journalists and their family members tested positive.

There was a growing list of patients admitted to ICUs, chemotherapy units, and labour wards in at least six city hospitals who have been categorized as “high risk” by the state health department. Officials from the Greater Chennai Corporation are now tracking patients, doctors and nurses in these hospitals.

Epidemiologists have also found that at least two cancer patients may have acquired the infection from city hospitals. “They were already immune-compromised. We have asked for screening of doctors, paramedics and other patients in both hospitals,” said a senior corporation health official.

No. of recovered patients more than active cases

The cancer patients have been shifted to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and are under intensive care. “One of them has undergone surgery for lung cancer and another patient is undergoing chemotherapy. They are now being monitored round the clock,” the official said.

Another cardiologist of a multispeciality hospital in Adyar has performed angioplasty on a patient who later tested positive for the infection earlier this week. On Thursday, officials were tracking down pregnant women, new mothers, doctors and staff nurses of at least two hospitals after a mother at one of the hospitals and two doctors at the other hospital tested positive. “Doctors and paramedical staff must take adequate precaution if they don’t know the status of the patient. The first option is to avoid surgery, but if that is not possible, doctors must take adequate precaution,” the official said.

According to health department sources, samples of a 67-year-old man who died on Wednesday have returned positive. He was admitted to a hospital on April 14 but did not have signs of the infection during admission. “Samples were drawn on Wednesday and test results were positive,” doctors said. On Friday, a 70-year-old patient from Madurai, mother of a priest at the Meenakshi Amman Temple, died of the infection. Nine other districts reported cases in single digits.

The state discharged 114 patients, including a woman who delivered a baby at the Stanley Medical College Hospital, after testing positive for the viral infection. Her infant was also discharged from the neonatal ward of the same hospital. The total number of patients discharged from different hospitals increased to 866. “We have 864 active cases in hospital now. For the first time the number of patients who were discharged is bigger than the number of patients in hospitals,” said health secretary Beela Rajesh.