Tamil Nadu: Covid reaches Nilgiris villages

UDHAGAMANDALAM: Covid-19 has breached TN’s last bastion, Nilgiris villages. The district recorded the second case of Covid-19 from the rural areas of the district with an 85-year-old woman from Thangadu-Oranalli village testing positive for the virus on Friday.
Ten days ago, many people who attended a funeral at the village visited the woman to seek her blessings.
Throwing all caution to wind, over 300 people, even from Coimbatore and Bengaluru, had attended the funeral in the village.A 50-year-old woman from Kerbetta village in Kotagiri taluk was the first person to test positive for the virus from rural areas of the district. She tested positive on Thursday after she returned from a private hospital in Mettupalayam.
Health officials have sealed entry points of both the villages.
Health officials are worried that the woman from Kerbetta would have spread the virus to many people as she had visited many places in the village before showing symptoms for the virus.
In the case of a woman from Thangadu-Oranalli village, many people visited her after the funeral and further on a ritual day.
While Kerbetta woman is being treated at the Ooty government hospital, Oranalli woman is in ESI Hospital in Coimbatore.
Samples have been lifted from around 100 contacts of the Kerbetta woman.
"People from Bengaluru had come for the funeral at Thangadu-Oranalli village a week ago. One of them might have transmitted the virus to the woman while receiving blessings," deputy director of public health Dr P Balusamy said.
In this case, health officials traced 45 contacts, including her family members and samples of swabs were lifted from them.
With Friday’s case, the number of Covid-19 cases in the district reached 117. While 56 cases are being treated at the Ooty government headquarters hospital, the remaining are admitted in ESI Hospital in Coimbatore.