Tamil Nadu’s only green zone district Krishnagiri records first COVID-19 case

Tamil Nadu’s only coronavirus free district Krishnagiri recorded its first COVID-19 case with a 67-year-old man testing positive for the virus on Saturday. The elderly man with a travel history to Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh had returned to Tamil Nadu on April 25. Krishnagiri district was the only one in Tamil Nadu to be notified as a green district by the Centre.

A 67-year-old man along with three others had gone to the Satya Sai Baba temple in Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh. Once the lockdown was extended for the first time to May 3, the pilgrims decided to travel back to Tamil Nadu. On April 25, the pilgrims had reached Krishnigiri border where the police officials questioned them and sent them to a quarantine facility. From the quarantine facility, the samples of the persons were then sent for testing, and the elderly man has tested positive for the virus.

Krishnagiri Collector Prabhakar said, “The COVID-19 patient was entering Tamil Nadu when our team checked them at the Krishnagiri border checkpost. We immediately isolated the patient and three others who were travelling along with him. We sent the samples of all the four persons for testing; one person alone tested positive. The other three people, though they tested negative, are kept under home quarantine.”

Krishnagiri was the only district in Tamil Nadu to report no cases from the time of COVID-19 outbreak in Tamil Nadu. This positive case could possibly mean that Krishnagiri will no longer get relaxations and will have to follow norms of the orange zone districts. An official notification is awaited. The Centre will revise its classification of red, orange and green zones in the country on a weekly basis.

If Krishnagiri continues to be a green zone, the district could have partially opened its public transportation system.

On Friday, Tamil Nadu reported 203 new COVID-19 cases, increasing the state’s total tally to 2,526. Of the 203 cases, 176 patients tested positive in Chennai alone, taking the total number of COVID-19 patients in the city to 1,082.