New Covid-19 cluster emerges in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: Ayyappan Nagar, just off Chetti Veedhi, on Wednesday emerged as the new Covid-19 cluster in the city by reporting 13 of the 45 new positive cases. A day earlier, MLA Amman Arjunan’s daughter, son-in-law and grandson, who had gone to Madurai, had tested positive for the virus from the area, which now has a total of 16 cases.
Among the 13 were children as young as three and seven years and people as old as 66 years.Their source of infection is yet to be identified. This has made Ayyappan Nagar, which is located in the heart of the old part of the city, a high-risk zone. While in other circumstances the area would have been shut completely, since it is a bus route, officials are yet to block the entry and exit points. A senior health department official said, “We are, however, recommending even those who have tested negative to stay indoors as much as possible.”
The Balan Nagar cluster also grew bigger with eight more employees of the garment shop testing positive for the virus. On Sunday, the garment shop owner and 18 employees had tested positive after they came in contact with an infected man from Ondipudur. While they were moved to the Covid care centre in Uppilipalayam corporation school, the new cases were admitted to the ESI Hospital. Police have, meanwhile, registered a case against the shop owner.
Chinnammal Street in Saibaba Colony also saw three more cases, taking its tally to six. The new cases comprise a 23-year-old woman, 19-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl.
Four people from Kalangal Road in Sulur also tested positive for the virus. Besides this, there were cases from Sullivan Street, Ganapathy, Ramanathapuram, Big Bazaar Street, Karumbukadai, Selvapuram and Vellalore.
The new cases also include seven flyers to the city - two from Chennai and five from Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, the city corporation officials are working on setting up a Covid care centre on Codissia grounds with 200 beds and a medical team. “The facility will be for asymptomatic patients. We will have a medical team to take care of them,” said city health officer Dr Raja.
The ESI Hospital said 29 patients - 15 men, 9 women and five children - were discharged on Wednesday after they tested negative for the virus after treatment.
According to the state health department bulletin, the district, however, had only 23 positive cases on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases to 561.