The District police have managed to trace as many as 49 persons out of the total 68 from Villupuram district who reportedly attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin in Delhi. A senior police official said special teams managed to trace as many as 49 of them hailing from Villupuram, Vikravandi, Gingee, Ananthapuram and Koonimedu with the list of persons given by the authorities. They have been quarantined while efforts are on to trace 19 others who attended the meet. They will be traced soon and admitted to the isolation ward, he said.
Villupuram Collector A. Annadurai said that the 49 persons had been admitted to the isolation wards in the Villupuram Government Hospital and the Villupuram Government Medical College and Hospital (VGMCH) at Mundiyambakkam. After three persons from Villupuram tested positive, special teams visited parts of the district and traced them.
The throat swabs of the 49 persons admitted in the isolation ward have been taken and sent for laboratory tests to VGMCH. The results are awaited, Mr. Annadurai said.
A Health department official said that special teams comprising of doctors, village health nurses and health inspectors would visit houses within each zone in Villupuram, Vikravandi, Gingee, Ananthapuram and Koonimedu to ascertain whether any of them had symptoms of cold, fever and breathing difficulties.
The administration had already sealed wards 6,7 and 8 in Villupuram town and a five-km zone around the wards declared as containment zone and another two kms as buffer zone after three positive cases surfaced in the district.
