Tamil Nadu: 3 people who died on Saturday test negative for COVID-19

The state recorded 42 positive cases till Saturday evening

tamil-nadu-corona-afp Health officials check the body temperature of a driver at the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh interstate border, on outskirts of Chennai | AFP

The three people who died at the Asaripallam hospital near Kanyakumari on Saturday, including a two-year-old boy, tested negative for COVID-19, according to the Tamil Nadu Health Department.

Three patients—a 66-year-old man and a 24-year-old man, apart from the boy—had died on Saturday. In a press statement, Health Secretary Dr Beela Rajesh told the media that they died of different medical conditions. “But their throat swabs and blood samples have been sent for coronavirus testing,” she said. A press statement from the department on Saturday clarified that the boy died due to osteoporosis, the 66-year-old man had chronic kidney disease or uremic encephalopathy, and the 24-year-old died because of sepsis caused by pneumonia.

On Sunday, again the health department said that their samples sent for COVID-19 tested negative and that they did not die of coronavirus. “We had sent the samples for COVID-19 testing. After the tests it has been confirmed that they tested negative for COVID-19 and all three were not infected by coronavirus,” the statement read.

The state recorded 42 positive cases till Saturday evening, while one patient died and one has been discharged. Around 2,09,284 passengers have been screened at the four airports—in Chennai, Trichy, Madurai and Coimbatore—and 45,537 people have been home quarantined. Around 112 persons who are asymptomatic, are in the government quarantine centres near the airports, and 277 people are at the isolation centres in the hospitals. The health department has sent 1,500 samples for testing, of which 1,393 have tested negative. Forty-two samples have been tested positive and 65 samples are still in the process.

In yet another press statement from the government, the contact list of the 42 tested positive, crosses 1,000. The statement puts out in detail the number of contacts of each of the 42 cases identified. As per the list, the department had traced 185 contacts for patient 11 from Tiruppur who had travelled from UK to Coimbatore on March 23, and 136 contacts for the Madurai man who died of COVID-19 with pre-existing co-morbid conditions.

Meanwhile, the greater Chennai corporation has started working on its COVID-19 containment plan. The corporation teams are conducting micro-grid intensive door-to-door verification around the COVID-19 positive identified house. The corporation has deployed 2500 domestic breeding checkers, 1,500 anganwadi workers, 750 health nurses and 1,500 school teachers. These people will visit at least 2,500 houses around the residence of any positive patient. This will be done for 28 days, beginning today.

Also, 15,610 people have violated the lockdown orders. 14,815 FIRs have been registered, 11,565 vehicles have been seized. At least 17,17,668 cases have been arrested and a total of Rs 4,80,000 has been collected as fine the violators.

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