NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, APRIL 14
After recording a spike in the number of cases past few days, Tamil Nadu reported a marginal dip in COVID-19 cases on Tuesday with only 31 testing positive for the contagion while 81 people were discharged following recovery, said Health Secretary Beela Rajesh.
Addressing reporters, she said the total number of coronavirus cases in the state rose to 1,204 and out of the fresh cases, as many as 21 were linked to “single source”, one person had a history of inter- state travel and nine others were their contacts.
A bulletin released by the Health and Family Welfare department said of the total cases, 1,079 were attendees of the Delhi congregation last month and their contacts. The state had reported 98 fresh cases on Monday, 106 on Sunday and 58 on Saturday.
Among the latest confirmed 31 cases, including 16 women, five belonged to Chennai, taking the total number of cases in the city to 211.
Coimbatore continued to be in the second slot in the state with 126 cases followed by Tirupur which recorded 79 and totally there are 17 districts (ranging between 23 and 211 cases) under the ”red” category COVID-19 containment zones.
The total number of deaths stood in the state at 12 till date, the health secretary added. However, she did not divulge more information on the 12th fatality.
Totally, 33 children – below 10 years – have tested positive for coronavirus while none of the 69 people with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) have turned positive for COVID-19.
As local authorities in the state, including the Greater Chennai Corporation, speeded up work on containment zones – the city civic body alone has verified about 1.42 crore households cumulatively- the secretary said.
Out of the over 28,000 people under surveillance in Tamil Nadu, 38,139 of them are in their respective homes and 135 are in government quarantine facilities.
Asked about confusion and opposition from residents of a city locality to the cremation of a doctor from Andhra Pradesh over apprehension of virus spread, the official said the episode was unfortunate and assured improving coordination to avoid such problems.
The deceased doctor’s family members were also sick which was also among the reasons for “lack of coordination”, she indicated. When the body of the 56-year old doctor, who died on Monday at a corporate hospital here, was taken to Ambattur area for cremation, the locals protested against it following which authorities carried it out in another place.
Meanwhile, 40 police personnel in Coimbatore are undergoing tests for coronavirus after a person who served food to a few of them tested positive for COVID19 on Monday.
According to police, a 61-year old man who had volunteered to provide food to these police personnel on duty at various locations was in the latest list of COVID19 cases. He had visited Delhi for personal reasons and returned to the city on March 23 by flight. The blood samples of nearly 100 people, residents of an apartment complex in RS Puram area in the city where four people tested positive for COVID19 a couple of days ago, have been taken for tests. These include those who attended a funeral at the apartment, officials said.
