Nellore doctor who treated Tablighi returnee dies

Amravati: The growing number of corona positive cases is causing worry to the authorities. Forty-six new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the State on Tuesday, according to the Health department. With this, the total number of infected people goes up to 485 in the state.

According to a Health department bulletin, ten persons had so far died due to Coronavirus and this includes a doctor who had treated a person returned from Tablighi Jamaat.

The Health department said the 56-year-old doctor belongs to Nellore. The doctor was a primary contact and had treated the Delhi returnee, who was a Covid-19 patient.

The doctor with symptoms of high fever and vomiting got admitted to a local government hospital on April 3. He also had hypertension and diabetes. On the request of his family members, the doctor was shifted to a private hospital in Chennai on April 6. He succumbed to the disease on Monday.

According to official sources, the state authorities have identified 10,505 suspected Covid-19 cases in the state and of them 485 were tested positive. The sources further said that 5,864 people have been sent to quarantine.

So far, health workers had conducted door-to-door to survey of about 1.4 crore people. Another 2.16 crore people are yet to be covered under the survey.

Guntur district tops the list of affected people with 109 positive cases followed by Kurnool with 93 cases. While this being the situation, reports of leaders particularly of ruling party engaged in distribution of money or essentials are not following the social distancing and a majority of them are not even wearing masks.

According to minister M Venkataramana, there have been instances where some party leaders have been putting pressure on authorities to release those who had completed 14 days of quarantine.

He said the government had issued a GO that the quarantine period would be 28 days and hence the leaders should understand that and stop putting pressure on the authorities.

Expressing concern over a large number of positive cases in Guntur, the minister said that 32 quarantine centres have been set up in the district and 5,190 have been provided medical aid.

He appealed to the people to cooperate with the authorities and strictly maintain social distancing.