Two test positive for COVID-19 in Puducherry

Two persons, who were in home quarantine, tested positive  for COVID-19 here on Wednesday. Director of Health and Family Welfare Dr Mohan Kumar told news persons that, of the three persons from Ariankuppam who had returned after attending the Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation at Nizamuddin West in New Delhi, two have tested positive for COVID-19.

The patients aged 37 and 51 are asymptomatic and are being looked after by a team of doctors at the Government Hospital for Chest Diseases, Gorimedu.

The test results of the third person  was expected at any time. The three were traced and kept in home quarantine on Tuesday after reports of a large number of people took part in the religious congregation getting infected of Novel Coronavirus, he said.

"All three are asymptomatic even now. They returned to their village on March 24. We have started contact tracing from Tuesday itself,"  Dr Kumar  said.

According to a government source, three more persons hailing from Katterikuppam, Thirubhuvanai and Thiruvandarkoil who returned Puducherry after attending the religious congregation have been traced.

Two of them have been kept at the isolation ward in a private medical college and the other at the Chest Clinic. Their throat swab was sent to Jawaharlal Institute of Post-graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) for testing to check for COVID-19, the source said.

With two more testing positive, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in the Union Territory had gone up to 3. The first case was reported in the enclave of Mahe with a 68-year-old sexagenarian woman who returned from Saudi Arabia testing positive for the virus.

The woman was discharged on March 28 after she had tested negative for the virus.