Vellore officials plan to quarantine all coming from Chennai

Vellore

Saturday saw a total of 29 new positive cases, including a death being reported. In addition to a private hospital being shut down, an urban primary health centre at Saidapet was closed on Sunday when a staffer checked positive for the virus.

The private hospital was sealed after learning that a Katpadi-based government doctor who visited the institution part-time tested positive. On hearing the news, the hospital discharged four in-patients without making them undergo the mandatory COVID-19 test. When the news reached corporation commissioner K Sankar, he ordered the hospital be sealed.

Regarding quarantining travelers from Chennai, officials said that despite check posts at Pillayarkuppam, 10 km from Vellore on the Chennai-Bengaluru national highway and another at Katpadi covering the Tiruvalam Road, two wheelers continue to enter the district through little known village roads.

“It is physically impossible to put up check posts on village roads,” Vellore Collector A Shanmuga Sundaram told DT Next. “Though we did think of a joint operation with the Ranipet administration to control this menace we had to drop the idea due to logistic problems,” he added.

“Hence as an alternative we are mulling over the idea of hiring two huge marriage halls on the NH and announce that all travellers from Chennai would be quarantined in them,” officials averred. “However it will take some time before it becomes a reality,” sources added.