4 new Covid-19 cases in Nilgiris, tally goes up to 26

UDHAGAMANDALAM: The Nilgiris recorded four more Covid-19 cases on Thursday, taking its tally to 26. Presently, there are 12 active cases in the district.

While two of them are returnees from Chennai, the remaining two are primary contacts of the of the returnees.

One of the new cases is a 30-year-old resident of Mel Vannarapettai in

Coonoor

. He was in Chennai, from where he flew down to

Coimbatore airport

and reached the hometown by road. His samples were collected at the Coimbatore airport. His 58-year-old father and 50-year-old mother have contracted the virus during his stay with them.

A 36-year-old woman resident of Wellington Cantonment area near Coonoor was the fourth one who tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Thursday. Like in the case of the 30-year-old Mel Vannarapettai resident, she had also flown down to Coimbatore airport, where her samples were collected for Covid-19 test, and reached her native by road.

According to Nilgiris collector J Innocent Divya, all the four patients have been admitted to the ESI Hospital in Coimbatore.

Officials have also sealed both Mel Vannarapettai and Wellington Cantonment areas and declared them containment zones.

Divya said, “Government employees and workers, who travel daily from neighbouring districts, have been asked to stay at the headquarters and discharge their duties.”

She said truck drivers would have to undergo Covid-19 test as they return to the district. “They would be kept in isolation camps till their results are out.”

With the district seeing a spike in Covid-19 cases, people’s forums and associations demanded the district administration to seal the district border for visitors. According to them, the Nilgiris has been witnessing heavy flow of visitors from within the zone, which also comprises Coimbatore,

Tirupur

, Salem and

Erode

districts, as e-pass was not required. The district has been witnessing casual movement of vehicles from other districts in the zone since the unlocking of the lockdown.

Divya said, “The spike in cases worries us. Only residents of the Nilgiris with address proof will be allowed in through the check posts at Burliar and Kunjappanai.”