Two more travellers from UK, Singapore test positive for COVID-19 in TN: Minister

With this, four people have tested COVID-19 positive on arrival from high-risk countries, he said.Inspecting a similar vaccination camp in Tindivanam later, Subramanian said a passenger who arrived from Singapore to Madurai after giving RT-PCR sample for testing was supposed to wait at the holding area.

Chennai, Dec 4 (PTI): Two more individuals who arrived from the United Kingdom and Singapore have tested COVID-19 positive pushing the total number of the virus-hit people who arrived from overseas to five, Tamil Nadu Minister Ma Subramanian said on Saturday.

''On Friday, three individuals who arrived from Singapore and the United Kingdom tested COVID-19 positive, including a child. This morning, a 25-year-old man arrived from the United Kingdom via Dubai and tested positive'', the Minister for Medical and Family Welfare said.

The Minister was talking to reporters in Villupuram after inspecting the 13th edition of mega vaccination camp being held across Tamil Nadu today.

''This 25-year-old man has been admitted to the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research Hospital at Guindy. With this, four people have tested COVID-19 positive on arrival from high-risk countries,'' he said.

Inspecting a similar vaccination camp in Tindivanam later, Subramanian said a passenger who arrived from Singapore to Madurai after giving RT-PCR sample for testing was supposed to wait at the 'holding area'. ''But he escaped and later his RT-PCR sampling tested COVID-19 positive. The passenger was traced and now he has been admitted to a hospital in Nagercoil. Through you (media), we appeal to passengers arriving from such high-risk countries to extend their support to the health department instead of posing a risk by spreading the contagion to others,'' he said.

Subramanian said the passengers who were being treated at the hospital were doing well and suspected to have contracted the Delta variant of the virus. ''We have sent their samples to the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine, Bengaluru, (INSTEM) for genomic sequencing,'' he pointed out.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu recorded a marginal increase in daily COVID-19 infections by adding 731 people, including five returnees from the United Kingdom, West Bengal and Bihar, to the caseload that stands at 27,29,792 till date, a bulletin said. Six people succumbed to the virus mounting the death toll to 36,519.

Recoveries marginally eclipsed new infections with 753 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 26,85,203 leaving 8,070 active infections.

A total of 1,06,505 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 5,46,81,905.

Chennai and Coimbatore accounted for the majority of new infections with 136 and 130 cases respectively, while the remaining were scattered across other districts.

As many as 22 districts reported new COVID-19 infections below 10, which include Ramanathapuram and Tenkasi reporting zero new cases, the bulletin said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)