Tamil Nadu’s lone COVID-19 patient was discharged on Tuesday, confirmed Dr Kolanadasamy, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. The patient's contacts, including his relatives, will remain under quarantine until their 28-day period ends.
Kolandasamy confirmed to TNM, "He was discharged yesterday and sent home."
“Results of his two consecutive samples taken 24hrs apart tested negative. Hence the passenger and the contact has been stepped down from the isolation ward. Health status of his contacts under home quarantine are stable,” reads the bulletin issued by Tamil Nadu Health and Family Welfare Department on Tuesday.
Tamil Nadu confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 7 when a 45-year-old man who recently visited Oman tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the pandemic. With his discharge, the state has no active coronavirus cases.
Currently, 2,635 passengers are under home quarantine in Tamil Nadu for 28 days and 24 are under hospital isolation.
According to Minister for Health and Family Welfare C Vijayabaskar, 147 samples have been tested so far of which 95 turned out to be negative and 51 are under process. Only one case has tested positive for COVID-19 so far in the state. The minister also tweeted that there are 1,120 beds in the isolation wards in the state.
#COVID19 TN stat 17.3.20 : Screened Passengers- 184486 , Under Followup - 2635, Beds in isolation wards- 1120, Admissions- 24, samples tested - 147, Negative-95, 1 positive (old case), under process- 51 #TN_Together_AgainstCorona #Vijayabaskar #CVB
— Dr C Vijayabaskar (@Vijayabaskarofl) March 17, 2020
The minister tweeted earlier that he had inspected Rajiv Gandhi hospital in the city and found it to be well-equipped.
Inspection at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital #MMC, to assess preparedness for #Covid19 & discussions with the Dean for setting up Lab at RGGH to test corona samples #TNHealth #Vijayabaskar #TN_Together_AgainstCorona
— Dr C Vijayabaskar (@Vijayabaskarofl) March 17, 2020
According to a report in The Times of India (ToI), engineering college hostels and government training centres may turn into quarantine centres for suspected COVID-19 cases in the state. So far, at the quarantine facility at Poonamallee, 40 have been quarantined.
Dr S Raghunandhan, director of Institute of Internal Medicine at Madras Medical College, told ToI that the government will be coming up with another quarantine facility in Tambaram. Hostel buildings of engineering colleges have been identified for this purpose.
On Monday, 14 passengers who reached Chennai International Airport from European countries via Dubai, were taken to a public healthcare centre in Poonamallee to be kept under observation for coronavirus symptoms. According to reports, they have been discharged for not showing any COVID-19 symptoms and will be observed under home quarantine.