Doctor shows symptoms, tests still inconclusive

Pratiksha.Ramkumar@timesgroup.com

Coimbatore:04.04.2020

The public health department had a scare on Thursday after another doctor developed symptoms of Covid-19. The Mettupalayam based doctor, who is pursuing masters in pediatrics and practising in Chidambaram, had returned during the lockdown.

After she developed symptoms, the doctor was isolated in a private hospital and tested for the virus. Her results from the lab in the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital was inconclusive, prompting officials to send a fresh sample to the Covid testing centre in Theni. “We heard that her sample tested negative in Theni. But we are awaiting an official declaration,” said deputy director of public health Dr G Ramesh Kumar.

The department is now working on to find out where she could have been exposed. “She was seeing patients in Chidambaram till she returned to the district five days ago. Here, she had no exposure to anybody in the Tablighi Jamaat group,” said Coimbatore collector K Rajamani. “So, we believe that exposure could have occurred while she was in Chidambaram. We are awaiting her final result,” he said.

The department is also awaiting the results of 25 people from the district, who attended the Tablighi Jamaat meet and also their close contacts. “This includes people from the corporation limits and Annur,” said Rajamani. “We have begun tracing their contacts before waiting for their results. Even if they test negative, they will not be discharged and allowed to go home. They will be moved to their quarantine location.”

Two private hospitals have submitted four samples for testing.

Seven people got admitted into ESI showing symptoms of the virus on Friday, taking the total number of admitted people to 109. The spurt in cases and fears of exposure has led to the calls to the 108 ambulance spiking from 17,000 a day to more than 21,000. Despite the district administration allocating six ambulances just to ferry symptomatic patients from homes to hospitals and in between hospitals, a group of four migrant labourers from Kerala who developed symptoms of the virus could not get an ambulance to reach the ESI hospital for four hours on Friday.