A 51-year-old man who tested positive for COVID-19 died at the Villupuram Government Medical College hospital, where he was undergoing treatment, on Saturday. The patient tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Thursday, after the government sent out an open call to the attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat Conference at Nizamuddin in Delhi.
According to a press statement issued by the Tamil Nadu health department he developed breathlessness on Friday night and did not respond to the treatment. He died at 7.44am on Saturday. “The patient developed breathlessness on Friday night and passed away on Saturday morning,” the statement said.
Sources in the district administration said that the body of the deceased was buried a few hours after the death was reported as per the guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Just a handful of his family members took part in the last rites. This is the second coronavirus-related death in Tamil Nadu, after a 54-year-old man from Madurai died on March 25. Incidentally, both had attended the Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi.
On Friday evening, Health Secretary Dr Beela Rajesh maintained that the health condition of all those who tested positive for COVID-19 and are and being treated at various hospitals across the state were stable. Tamil Nadu witnessed a surge in the number of positive cases for the past two days and touched 411 on Friday. Beela Rajesh said 364 out of the 411 patients are those who attended the Delhi conference.
While the Tablighi Jamaat conference is one main hotspot, the authorities in the state braced themselves to trace and track two more clusters. The state health department has already put out an announcement asking people who visited the Lifestyle Apparel store at Phoenix Mall in Velacherry, Chennai, to be cautious and seek immediate medical help in case they show any symptoms. This was after three employees at the apparel store tested positive for COVID-19. The first was a 25-year-old female employee from the store who was admitted to the Government hospital at Ariyalur and her male colleague was later admitted to the hospital at Tiruvannamalai. Their contact was tracked to a man from Kerala who later tested positive in Sri Lanka.
The state government estimates at least 3,000 people who would have visited the mall between March 10 and March 17.
Apart from this, the state authorities are also keeping track of another growing cluster coming from two churches at Pammal near Chennai. A 43-year-old man and his 73-year-old mother from Pozhichazhur near Chennai tested positive for COVID-19. Both do not have travel history to any of the affected countries. The man had travelled to Kochi in a flight and works for a pharma company. He developed symptoms while he was on the flight. But he attended the church service with his mother, where there were more than 30 people. He later went to another church to sing in the choir and then celebrated his wife’s birthday celebration in which more than 50 people had gathered. His two children developed symptoms but recovered fully in a couple of days. The children, according to health department authorities, have tested negative.
The epidemiologists at the government health department are trying to track the people who travelled in the flight from Kochi and also those who took part in the church service. The authorities have asked the church priest to inform those who participated in the church service to quarantine themselves.
