Madurai lockdown from June 24 to contain spread across districts

AROUND TN SOUTH

Madurai lockdown from June 24 to contain spread across districts

Ananth.MK@timesgroup.com  23.06.2020

Alockdown, from June 24 to July 1, will be enforced in Madurai city and adjoining rural areas in Paravai town panchayat and villages in Madurai East, Madurai West and Thiruparankundram blocks to contain the spread of Covid-19. There will be a complete lockdown without any relaxations from midnight on June 28 to 6am on June 29.

As the number of cases touched 849 in Madurai, with 157 more on Monday, officials said that curbing the spread in the district was key to control the situation in other southern districts.

The district administration plans contact tracing and focussed testing during the lockdown. Health officials will organise fever clinics for early detection of cases. House-to-house survey will be carried out in the lockdown areas to identify potential Covid-19 cases at an early stage.

From June 17 to June 22, southern Tami Nadu recorded a spike in Covid-19 cases. The 1,265 fresh cases in the region in six days account for more than a third of the 3,747 cases reported in the 10 districts so far. There has been a 50% increase in the number of cases in six days compared to the total in the region from March to June 16.

Total cases that were 189 on June 17 and 183 on June 18, crossed the 200-mark for the first time with 226 cases on June 19 and remained above 200 for two more days – 292 on June 20 and 212 on June 21 – before touching 353 on Monday, the highest in a day. As many as 2,132 cases or 57% of these cases are from three districts with Madurai leading with 849 cases, followed by Tirunelveli (644) and Tuticorin (639). Madurai had 299 cases in just three days.

Only 77 (6%) cases reported from June 17 to 21 are from imported other states or countries. The rest are local cases that include those who travelled from Chennai, their contacts and local spread. Attributing increase in sample testing as reason for the spike, officials are asking public to wear masks and maintain social distancing.

Sivaganga, with 103 cases till Monday, has the least number of cases in the south. After cross-notifying dozens of cases to other regions, it crossed 100 cases for the first time. From a total of 15 deaths shown in the health department bulletin till June 16, it climbed to 27, an 80% increase. Tenkasi is the only district without a Covid-19 related death in the entire region.