Two more COVID-19 cases were detected in Andhra Pradesh on Friday, taking the total up to 13 cases in the state. So far, only the first patient from Nellore has been discharged from the hospital after subsequent tests came back negative.
Both newer cases in the state are primary contacts of people who have recently tested positive. Patient 12, from Visakhapatnam district, is a primary contact of Patient 7.
Patient 7 is a 25-year-old man who had recently returned from Birmingham in the United Kingdom. He travelled from Birmingham to Delhi and then to Vizag by flight, on March 17. From the airport, he went home to Tagarapuvalasa by car with his father, after undergoing thermal screening and being advised home quarantine at the airport.
He began to develop symptoms two days later and visited Gayatri Vidya Parishad hospital on March 21, and was then admitted to the Government General Hospital for Chest and Communicate Diseases (GGHCCD) on the same day.
Patient 13 from Guntur is a primary contact of Patient 10, a 52-year-old man who recently came back to his home in Guntur from Delhi, after attending a religious congregation at Nizamuddin Mosque in New Delhi, according to a previous update.
The man attended the meeting at the mosque, along with 20 others, for two-and-a-half days. He then took the Duronto Express from Delhi to Vijayawada, and travelled by car to his home in Guntur on March 19. Patient 13 came into contact with him on March 19, and she was admitted to the hospital on March 23, the latest bulletin said.
Patient 10 reportedly attended family gatherings and travelled to nearby colonies from his residence in Mangaldas Nagar. Contact tracing has been done, and samples of about 35 people who came in contact with him have been sent for testing, authorities said.
Seven colonies in the town were declared as a ‘red zone’, including Mangaldas Nagar, Arundathi Nagar, RTC Colony, Ambedkar Nagar, Seethanagar, Nehru Nagar and Vasavi Nagar. Sanitisation work has been carried out, and the roads have been sprayed with disinfectants.