AROUND THE STATE

Hope amid gloom as Covid +ve woman delivers baby

Team TOI  08.04.2020

There was good news amid the Covid-19 gloom when a 32-year-old woman, who tested positive on Tuesday, delivered a baby boy by caesarean section at the Raja Mirasdar Government Hospital in Thanjavur. The woman’s father-in-law, a resident of Sundaram Nagar in Thanjavur town, had returned from the Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi. The man and his son are now awaiting their Covid test report. Thanjavur district collector M Govinda Rao told TOI that both baby and mother were stable. “We will take swab samples for the baby tomorrow,” he said.

In Madurai, the wife and two sons of a 54-year-old Madurai man, who died due to respiratory failure after he tested positive for Covid-19, tested negative in the first confirmatory test. “The second confirmatory test will be done on Wednesday and they are likely to be discharged if they test negative again,” said Madurai collector T G Vinay. The woman and her two sons were admitted to the isolated ward in the Madurai Rajaji government hospital after they tested positive.

Meanwhile, district authorities continued with contact tracing of family members of positive patients and expanding containment zones across the state. On Tuesday, the total number of Tablighi Jamaat members and relatives, who tested positive for Covid-19, rose to 637.

On Tuesday, five persons in Madura district tested positive for Covid-19. Out of the five, one person had attended the Delhi conference while others were all close contacts of positive patients. A 49-yearold man, who tested positive, was from Elumalai, a containment zone, and was working in the milk depot of another positive patient. In the containment zones in this district, a total of 73,396 families are being monitored by 902 health department teams.

In Trichy, after five more persons tested positive, the city corporation established four additional containment zones. Trichy district on Monday recorded 13 new Covid-19 positive cases. Barricades were placed by the urban local body and city police at the entrances of streets to prevent public movement. Trichy Corporation mobilised four minitrucks to sell assorted bags of vegetables to residents in the containment zones.

Trichy collector S Sivarasu said he had ordered for samples to be taken from a 73-yearold woman and a 20-year-old pregnant woman. “I have asked the health department to concentrate on aged people and those who are at high risk in the families of the affected people to ascertain their status,” said the collector.

Except Thanjavur, Trichy, Karur, Ariyalur, Perambalur, Pudukottai, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts in the region recorded no new cases. Among the eight districts, Trichy district was on top of the list with 30 positive cases.

In Coimbatore, the district administration began containment measures for the 23 cases within the corporation limits. At least 60 people have tested positive, 57 among them are Tablighi Jamaat Muslims. All their families have been quarantined in their homes. Besides these 57, two others, including a 25-year-old girl, who returned from Spain, and a 53-year-old railway engineer, have tested positive. All their families have been placed under home quarantine. Besides, around 2,000 people. who flew in from abroad, continue to be under home-quarantine.