Sudden spurt in admission to isolation ward panics people

There is a spate of calls to know if they tested positive for COVID-19

01/04/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,TIRUNELVELI

The admission of 23 of the 24 persons, who attended a religious conference in Delhi recently, in the isolation ward of Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital, where one COVID – 19 positive person is already undergoing treatment has triggered panic among the public.

Since only three persons had been in the isolation ward till Monday and one youth from Samooharengapuram, who tested positive for COVID – 19, is undergoing medication in the ‘treatment ward’, there was a little relief among the residents here as they console themselves with the thought that penetration of the pandemic in one of the hottest districts of Tamil Nadu is less.

When the social media were abuzz on Tuesday with the information that 23 persons had been admitted to the TVMCH’s isolation ward, most of the residents here lost their peace. Besides making calls frantically to the journalists to confirm the panicky news that they have received, they also wanted to know if they had tested positive for COVID – 19.

Of the 24 persons, 17 are from Melapalayam, 3 from Pettai, 2 from Valliyoor, 1 each from Kalakkad and Seythunganallur near Palayamkottai in Thoothoukudi district.

Sources in the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital here said 23 of the 24 persons, who attended the Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi, had COVID – 23 symptoms and had been admitted to the isolation ward.

“We’ve lifted samples from these cases and we, at this stage, cannot say anything on this issue. We’ve to crosscheck the results we got at TVMCH with the results with a Pune-based lab,” a senior doctor of TVMCH said without saying anything concrete about the outcome of the clinical investigations done here.

Another senior doctor of TVMCH said the samples would usually be sent for crosschecking only when the patients test positive for a viral infection.

“Since the samples of these 23 patients have been sent to Pune for crosschecking or confirmation, one can infer that they might be COVID – 19 positive as per the results of TVMCH,” he explained.