AROUND TAMIL NADU

AROUND TAMIL NADU  11.06.2020

26 new coronavirus cases in Tiruvannamalai

Twenty-six people tested positive for Covid-19 in Tiruvannamalai district on Wednesday. The total number of cases in the district stands at 548 now. Of the new cases reported, seven were suffering from influenza-like illness and 14 had returned from Chennai, Hosur and Bengaluru. Five positive cases were primary contacts of infected people. Sixteen people were discharged on Wednesday taking the total number of cured to 326. As many as 220 positive cases are being treated at the Government Tiruvannamalai Medical College and Hospital, Cheyyar Government Hospital and at a private hospital in Athiyandhal village. Speaking to TOI, a senior district administration official said, “The surge in number of positive cases was only after the arrival of workers who got stranded in other districts and states. The another reason for the spike in cases is high number of tests. In Tiruvannamali district, more than 23,000 people were tested.”

Man from TN dies in Pondy, swab tests positive

A man from Tamil Nadu, who died at Indira Gandhi Government General Hospital in Puducherry on Monday, tested positive for Covid-19 infection. Director (health and family welfare) S Mohankumar said the 82-year-old man from Villupuram was admitted with multiple ailments including diabetes, high blood pressure, blood clots in the brain and cardiac complaints to the hospital on June 4. Swab samples taken after his death tested positive for Covid-19 infection on Tuesday following which the territorial officials made necessary arrangements to follow all protocols in managing and disposing of the body. Health minister Malladi Krishna Rao inspected the hospital on Wednesday morning and reviewed the preparedness of the staff to handle dead bodies of Covid patients. Meanwhile, 12 more people tested positive for Covid-19 infection taking the total number of cases to 145 in the Union territory.

Two flyers, pregnant woman test positive in Coimbatore

Three people, one of them a pregnant woman, tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Coimbatore on Wednesday. While two of them are flyers from Chennai, the third one is a local resident. In the case of the flyers - a 24-year-old woman from RS Puram and a 34-year-old business traveller - samples were collected on Tuesday when they landed in the city. They have been admitted to private hospitals. The indigenous case is the pregnant woman. She doesn’t have a travel history and any known contact with a positive case. A health department official said the woman was tested for Covid-19 when she approached a private hospital to get admitted for delivery. She has been shifted to the ESI Hospital. G Ramesh Kumar, deputy director of public health, said, “The patient is asymptomatic and stable. Her husband is a cop who is deployed at Walayar check post. We have collected samples from him, other close family members and neighbours. There are around 12 houses in and around her residence.”

Trichy city gets third containment zone

After five people in a house tested positive for Covid-19 on Chinna Chetti Street, Trichy corporation established a containment zone in the vicinity on Wednesday, the third to be established here in the past week. Local body officials said that a 47-year-old man from Chinna Chetti Street had volunteered to get tested on June 8 at MGMGH as he had symptoms. Since he tested positive, swabs from eight of his family members residing in the street were collected of which four including three women tested positive. Officials said they found it difficult to track the travel history of the man as he was not fully cooperative.

Madurai university invents respirator-cum-ventilator

A research team from the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) has invented a ventilator-cum-respirator device (LIDS-VR) that would help prevent the spread of coronavirus while providing continuous oxygen supply for frontline workers, infected patients and healthy people. Vice chancellor of MKU, professor M Krishnan, said a team of experts - Dr T Arockia Doss, department of physics and Dr B Ashokkumar, department of genetic engineering, invented this device (LIDS-VR). They was demonstrated the device in front of Dr N Sivasubramanian, former senior scientist, Isro, who has appraised the invention.