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Swab samples of 30 primary contacts of TJ attendees from Nilgiris lifted

09.04.2020

Health officials in Ooty on Wednesday collected samples of throat swabs and blood from 30 primary contacts, mostly family members, of the eight attendees of Tabligi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi. While four of the attendees have tested positive for Covid-19, the remaining tested negative. The four positive cases are being treated at ESI Hospital in Coimbatore while the other four are being monitored at the isolation ward of Ooty government hospital.

“A team of health officials lifted samples from all the 30 primary contacts. The samples will be sent to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital lab for Covid-19 test,” collector J Innocent Divya said.

The attendees returned to their homes in the district on March 24. They were with their families for at least two days till they were home quarantined by the officials on March 27. On March 31, the eight people were shifted to the isolation ward in Ooty government hospital.

While the three attendees of the religious congregation are from Coonoor and Kotagiri each, two are from Ooty town. The localities where their families live are sealed as per containment plan.

Meanwhile, the Nilgiris district is expecting the imported rapid test kits in a day or two for conducting tests at the three containment areas. “The government has instructed to conduct sample tests in the containment areas too. The exercise of sample tests for Covid-19 in those areas will commence on Friday using the rapid test kits,” Divya said.

Mahe man tests positive, fifth case in Puducherry

A 71-year-old man from Mahe, Puducherry’s enclave in Kerala, tested positive for Covid-19 taking the total number of positive cases in the Union territory to five as on Wednesday. The patient, with a history of renal and cardiac ailments, and pneumonia, has been undergoing treatment at the Pariyaram Government Medical College Hospital in Kannur district of Kerala.

Health officials said the patient did not visit any foreign country but might have contracted the virus from people who had returned from abroad. The administration has quarantined 28 people who came in contact with him. Eleven of them underwent medical tests and tested negative. The rest will be tested soon. The administration has launched efforts to trace more than 20 others who came in contact with him recently. Inquiries revealed that he had visited a mosque inside a school in Mahe from March 15-21. He attended a betrothal function on March 18 at a town in Kannur district in which more than 40 people had participated.

The man complained of fever and sore throat on March 23. After his condition deteriorated on March 31, he was admitted to a private hospital. His throat swab samples were taken on April 6.

TV journalist jailed following doc’s complaint

A journalist with a popular news channel was arrested and remanded in Ponneri subjail on Tuesday, based on a complaint from a doctor, after he shot some videos about people allegedly being prescribed drugs by nurses and medical assistants without being diagnosed by doctors at a primary health centre (PHC) in Minjur.

The journalist went to the spot after being informed about it by a local resident. Video footage shows him asking people who were in a queue if they had seen a doctor and all of them said they hadn’t. He confronts people in the dispensary asking them if they were doctors to give out medicine, and no one replies.

The Minjur police registered a case based on the complaint of the PHC doctor G S Rajesh and arrested journalist Damodharan. Police detained him at the Minjur police station until 10.30pm. He was remanded in jail by a magistrate late in the night.

Representatives of the TV channel met the state police chief J K Tripathy who told them an inquiry had been ordered and the probe report would be out on Thursday.

151 under quarantine in Ramnad after attending funeral of Covid-19 +ve man

The Ramanathapuram district administration has placed as many as 151 people, including a former minister under quarantine after they attended the funeral of a 71-year-old man who died of Covid-19.

The man, hailing from Ramanathapuram district had died at the Covid-19 isolation ward of Stanley Hospital in Chennai on April 2. His body was buried in a mosque in Keelakarai in Ramanathapuram on April 3. According to sources, several people, including Ramanathapuram MLA and former IT minister M Manikandan and his father, had attended the funeral as his test results were not known then.

Later, when his test result turned out to be positive, officials from the district administration started to identify those who attended the funeral and asked them to remain in self-quarantine.

Based on a complaint by the village administrative officer, the Keelakarai police registered a case against both sons of the deceased for organising the funeral despite being aware that their father was admitted to the isolation ward. They had also violated the 144 promulgation rules.

Speaking to TOI, district collector K Veera Raghava Rao said of the 151 people, 11 are family members of the deceased, while five had performed the rituals during the funeral. All are being closely monitored and swab samples would be taken from them for testing, he added.