Twenty-four persons are under observation for symptoms of COVID-19 in isolation wards of government medical college hospitals, and a total of 2,635 persons are under home quarantine in the State, as per a bulletin issued by the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
Officials said that they had quarantined persons arriving from seven highly-affected countries.
Till date, 140 nasal and throat swabs and blood samples have been lifted from persons for testing. Except one sample that tested positive last week and another sample that is under process, the remaining samples returned negative for COVID-19.
As on date, a total of 1,84,861 passengers have been screened at the airports in Chennai, Tiruchi, Madurai and Coimbatore.
Health officials said that they were quarantining passengers arriving from seven affected countries — South Korea, China, Iran, Italy, Germany, France and Spain. Eighteen persons, who were quarantined at the Institute of Public Health, Poonamallee, on Monday, were discharged as they did not show symptoms for COVID-19. As of now, 40 persons were quarantined at the facility.
‘One imported case’
There is no community transmission of COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu, said Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar. “We are taking several measures to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 at the community-level. We had only one imported case of COVID-19 and he has been treated. Italy is facing community transmission. The State government is taking steps to ensure that there is no transmission through contacts, no epidemiological links. Community spread will be a huge challenge,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
He also inspected the Central railway station and the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
Published - March 18, 2020 01:20 am IST
