After reporting negative for COVID-19 for quite sometime, Srikakulam too joined the list of affected districts, proving that the relief here was short-lived. Three cases emerged here, the wife, sister-in-law and mother-in-law of a person employed with the Delhi Metro Rail.
His initial reports too indicated positive but the final test at the Kakinada laboratory showed a negative result, while the three tested positive in the first and final reports.
He returned from Delhi on March 19 and has since been kept in home quarantine at Kaguvada village of Patapatnam mandal.
He took the test a couple of days ago as senior officials wanted his fitness certificate and a COVID-19 negative report for him to report back to duty at metro rail.
70 quarantined
The development has put the officials on their toes. With the directive of Collector J. Nivas, nearly 70 of his contacts in the last one month have been sent to a quarantine facility.
According to sources, his mother-in-law is a vegetable seller and did her business till lockdown was clamped on March 24.
Officials are gathering the details of the persons whom they had contacted between March 19 and 24.
The police have intensified lockdown enforcement in Patapatnam mandal which is very close to Odisha.
Meanwhile, the district administration confirmed that 1,422 out of 1,445 foreign returnees were safe and tested negative. They also completed 28 days of quarantine. Of the 4,439 samples tested in the district, 3,280 were confirmed as negative and 1,159 results were awaited.
