Coimbatore battles spike in COVID-19 cases as new cluster emerges in Selvapuram

As Tamil Nadu continues to report a high number of COVID-19 cases on a daily basis, health officials in Coimbatore district are a worried lot. The district has been constantly reporting over 20 new cases in the past few days, which also includes a cluster of cases from the Selvapuram locality in Coimbatore.

According to reports, the Selvapuram cluster which stemmed from a gold factory has at least 34 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Monday. The officials suspect more people from the cluster to turn out to be positive for coronavirus since about 100 samples collected from the area are yet to be processed.

The Selvapuram cluster emerged after one of the employees in Maruti Gold Factory tested positive for the virus, as a contact of another COVID-19 patient. The district health department officials took the swab samples of other employees as well on Sunday. The officials collected over 135 samples from other employees of the factory. The said factory is located close to Ayyappan Nagar locality, where 23 persons were found to have COVID-19 a few days ago. An AIADMK MLA Amman Arjunan, who tested positive for coronavirus recently hailed from this area and hence the district authorities have now brought the entire locality under surveillance by installing a watch tower and deploying drone cameras.

The District Collector of Coimbatore has also ordered that every street in Selvapuram where a resident has tested positive for the virus be closed, in an attempt to restrict the spread of the virus.

The district reported 60 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and the total number of cases reported in Coimbatore is 802. A total of 525 persons are currently being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals and in their houses in Coimbatore district as of Monday. Tamil Nadu has 46,833 COVID-19 positive patients undergoing treatment currently.