Cases re-emerge in Salem, Madurai

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  1.5.2020

Health authorities in Salem hoped the district would soon join neighbouring Erode and Nilgiris which reported zero Covid-19 cases for the past several days.

But there was disappointment on Thursday when a person from Salem tested positive for the virus after a gap of five days. It is not just Salem that has reported a fresh case after a lull. Madurai, which did not have a positive case, for two consecutive days, reported five new cases on Thursday. Similar is the case of Ramanathapuram, where three people tested positive after a gap of three days. So were Perambalur and Ariyalur districts which had two and one positive cases respectively when they were showing signs of hope without cases for consecutive days.

The Salem patient is an employee of a sub-court in Mettur. “He is from Kottagoundampatty village near Omalur. We have traced his source of infection to a woman patient from Suramangalam,’’ R Balajinathan, dean of the Salem Government Mohan Kumarmangalam Medical College and Hospital. He said that the woman had tested positive at the Kerala border when she was heading to the neighbouring state for work a few days ago. Health officials have sealed the street along which the patient was residing and have disinfected the locality.

There was slight disappointment among health officials, particularly in Madurai, because of the unexpected spike in cases when they were hoping to flatten the curve. Nevertheless, they say it is not alarming. Among the five positive cases in Madurai, for instance, two were frontline workers and one was from a containment zone, officials said.

Among those who tested positive is a 26-year-old man, a native of Tuticorin, who is serving in the disaster management team. He had been working in Chennai and was deployed to Madurai. Another Covid positive patient, a 42-year-old woman, was a health worker from the Government Rajaji Hospital.

In Ramanathapuram, all the three who tested positive were frontline workers - a 30-year-old traffic police constable, a 29-yearold fireman and a 33-year-old domestic breeding checker. The southern district reported the last Covid case on April 26.

“The police station and fire station have been closed following the test results. The traffic police station is now functioning just outside the station building as a temporary measure. We are screening all the personnel in the police station and fire station,” said a health official.

Health authorities said the number of people testing positive would drop in the coming days.