TIRUCHY: By recording 17 cases Tiruchy district which had none till yesterday, has marked a steep raise in COVID-19 cases on Saturday.
With this, Tiruchy and the central districts have a total of 58 corona virus cases.
In Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital at Tiruchy, there are 125 cases in the coronavirus isolation ward.
Out of them, 120 are from Tiruchy district whereas 3 hail from Karur and each from Erode and Thanjavur.
Among the 120 from Tiruchy district cases, 117 are Delhi returnees.
As on Saturday, the results of 53 persons were received, of which, 17 tested positive and 36 were tested negative.
The samples of the remaining 67 are under process.
Collector S Sivarasu announced that the places of 120 persons were identified and those 50 areas would be under containment from Sunday.
The areas in the city that would face containment are Alwaarthoppu, 10th and 11th crosses of Thillai Nagar. Similarly, in rural parts, Purathangudi, Koothur, Iyankudi, Puthanatham and other areas, according to sources.
"Nobody would be allowed to go outside from these 50 areas. Notices would be pasted and barricades would also be setup. Only medical emergencies would be considered," he added.
As many as 469 health teams were set off to check the health conditions of all the family members in 25, 586 households in the 50 areas.
He further said “The persons who tested negative would continue to be in the isolation ward for 14 days as a precaution.
"The family members of all the 120 persons are under home quarantine and being monitored every day. But they exhibit no symptoms as of now."
The Collector said that there were 98 ventilators in the government hospitals across the district.
However, nobody was on ventilator support as their health was stable.
In Tiruchy, SRM hospital at Irungalur, GVN hospital, Maruti hospital, Kauvery hospital in the city and Sindhuja hospital in Manapparai are permitted to treat coronavirus patients.
All these hospitals have isolation wards.
"Lockdown would be implemented strictly and nobody would be allowed to come out of houses without valid reasons. Stringent action would be taken against the violators as many were seen roaming on roads unnecessarily. I urge everyone to stay home," Collector warned.
As far as central districts are concerned, Tiruchy recorded 17 coronavirus cases, Karur 22 cases, Tiruvarur 12 cases, Nagapattinam 5 cases, one each in Thanjavur and Perambalur.