A 25-year-old woman tested positive for COVID-19 ,making her the first case of the infection in Ariyalur district. She is under observation at the Ariyalur Government Hospital and is being closely monitored, doctors said.
The woman, a native of Ariyalur had been working in Chennai for a few years. “She had been working in a shopping mall in Velachery, Chennai and was residing in Saidapet,” official sources at the Ariyalur GH said.
The patient had approached the doctors at the hospital on March 20 with a cold and fever after returning to her home in Ariyalur the previous day. “We will conduct another test on the 7th and 14th day after the first test. There is no need to worry,” the doctor said.
The patient's family, co-workers and close contacts have been traced and asked to remain in home quarantine, he said. Passengers of the bus in which the patient travelled in, would also be traced, he added.
Ariyalur GH has a set up a 200-bed isolation ward on its campus to tackle the novel coronavirus outbreak. “Work on the construction of our two-floored new building has just been completed when the need for isolation wards arose. We decided to use the entire building,” a doctor said.
A quarantined area of 170 beds where patients would be kept under observation and an isolation ward with 30 beds -- for those who test positive has been set up. “We will soon increase the beds at the quarantined area to 270,” he added.
