Around 11 employees from three leading Tamil television channels tested positive for coronavirus on Monday.
Officials suspect that five employees among the new cases contracted the virus from an employee of the same channel, who tested positive on Friday. The employees are video editing and web teams.
According to sources, the anchor was infected via a family member. All the six employees of the channel have opted for home quarantine instead of institutional quarantine.
Similarly, four employees of a news channel and one more media person from another news channel have also tested positive.
Last month, 26 employees of a Tamil news channel tested positive for the virus. The patients were both from the desk and reporting sections. Currently, the patients have been discharged and are staying under home quarantine, sources in the channel said.
A sub-editor living in the police quarters was the first person to have tested positive and the officials were probing the possibilities of the person contracting the infection from his father who is a police official.
After the 26 media persons tested positive, a free COVID-19 test camp was set up for journalists in Chennai and Coimbatore. Most of the samples turned negative.
As on Sunday, Tamil Nadu recorded 669 new COVID-19 cases. Of the 669 cases, Chennai saw the sharpest single-day spike of 506 cases. Three deaths were also reported, taking the toll to 47 deaths in Tamil Nadu. The total numbers of recoveries stand at 1,959. Chennai will see a spike for the next five to six days as officials are doing targeted testing, with focus on the North Chennai and Koyambedu clusters, said Chennai’s Special Zonal Officer J Radhakrishnan.