2 deaths take state toll to 20, Covid-19 +ve count hits 1,683

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:24.04.2020

Two deaths and Covid-19 infection in labour wards of two Chennai hospitals kept health workers on their toes as the state capital also accounted for half the 54 positive cases in Tamil Nadu on Thursday.

A 70-year-old man at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and a 56-year-old woman at the Apollo Hospitals in Vanagaram succumbed to the viral infection on Thursday, taking the toll to 20.

Two gynaecologists, one a senior citizen, from a private hospital in RA Puram, who tested positive for the viral infection, were admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on Thursday along with a staff nurse. At a hospital in Mogappair, a new mother who tested positive after C-section, has been moved to the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital. The infant is now in the neo-natal unit. The health condition of the doctors, nurse, mother and the baby is stable, doctors said. “The child is given breast milk from our bank. The mother is stable,” said Kilpauk hospital dean Dr Vasanthamani P.

A Covid-19 positive mother watches her new-born through a video call at Aurangabad Civil Hospital in Maharashtra. The two are in different wards. The baby has tested negative

More nursing staff among the fresh Covid cases

Officials from the Greater Chennai Corporation said most patients of the RA Puram doctors have been tracked, quarantined and tested.

“The hospital is functioning with skeletal staff with the lockdown. There are few outpatients. Samples of all staff have been taken,” said a senior health department official.

“The data of the patients who came last week is being collected. They also will be tested,” he said. At the Mogappair hospital, 15 employees including four doctors and staff nurses have been quarantined on the premises. Swab samples of all the staff members are being tested, officials said.

The patient came to the Mogappair hospital with labour pain on April 21. Doctors took swab samples before taking her into the theatre for a C-section.

“Doctors say they had taken abundant precaution and were dressed in PPE during the surgery. Yet, we have asked them to stay in quarantine until test results come. The only other patient in the hospital was discharged on Thursday morning. She had a normal delivery and we are tracking her,” officials said.

Among the 54 cases fresh Covid-19 positive cases on Thursday, there were more staff nurses from Ramnad and Namakkal and two hospital workers from a Chennai hospital. Health officials said 27 of them were primary sources, who had a travel history and an equal number had contracted the infection from close contacts. They included two participants of the Tablighi Jamaat conference and 15 others who were close contacts of people who had tested positive.

Chennai had 27 of the cases, Salem recorded five cases, Namakkal had four, Dindugul and Virudunagar had three each, and Madurai had two cases.

Ten other districts recorded one case each, taking the total to 1,683.

Meanwhile, 90 patients were discharged, taking the number of people to 752. There were 908 people undergoing treatment at various hospitals across the state.

The state tested 6,880 people in the last 24 hours and 59,952 so far, a bulletin from the state health departments said. Medall healthcare, a diagnostic lab in Chennai, was approved for testing on Thursday.