Two Chennai doctors test positive for COVID-19

Families, co-workers and other contacts of the two doctors are being traced and tested.

Coronavirus Coronavirus

Two doctors practising in Chennai, a 44-year-old man and a 27-year-old man, have tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday.

According to a corporation official, the 27-year-old doctor works in the CSI Rainy Hospital in Old Washermanpet, while the other doctor works in Government Periphery Hospital in Periyar Nagar in Perambur.

The 44-year-old doctor got himself admitted in Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) on April 9 following symptoms. Speaking to TNM, a doctor working in the Periphery hospital said that following the doctor’s isolation at RGGGH, all doctors and nurses in the Periphery hospital got tested and all of them have returned negative. “Now the staff are also getting tested. There is no problem in the hospital right now,” the doctor said.

The Government Periphery hospital is a part of Zone 6 (Thiru Vi Ka nagar) of the GCC.

An officer from the Greater Chennai Corporation told TNM that around 30 contacts of the doctor at CSI Rainy hospital have been isolated and have been tested for the infection. He also mentioned that the Corporation is now working to trace his contacts near his residence, quarantining and testing them.

The CSI Rainy Hospital lies in Zone 5 (Royapuram) of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC).

Both these zones have the highest number of COVID-19 positive cases in GCC as of April 10. While Royapuram has recorded 46 cases as of Friday, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar has 25 cases of COVID-19, thus turning out to be hotspots of the disease within the corporation limits.

Chennai, in total, has 172 positive cases of COVID-19 as of Friday evening. Tamil Nadu has 911 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus which includes 44 patients who were discharged on recovery and nine patients who died while getting treated in hospitals.