Man who distributed food packets to Tamil Nadu police tests positive for coronavirus

A 61-year-old man tested positive for coronavirus on April 9 in Coimbatore sending health department officials into a tizzy as he came in contact with several policemen on duty in the city. This man jumped home quarantine and was actively distributing food packets to police personnel on guard during the COVID-19 lockdown in Coimbatore.

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The man, who is said to be close to a local politician, had returned to Coimbatore from Delhi on March 23 and was asked to be under home quarantine after it came to light that some of those who attended the Tabliqi Jamaat event in the national capital were his co-passengers.

Since several policemen are believed to have come in contact with him, officials were burning the midnight oil to trace the patient’s contacts.

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“We are still trying to trace all his contacts. We have quarantined some people and we are still on the job,” Dr. G Ramesh Kumar, Deputy Director of Health Services, Coimbatore, told DH.

Coimbatore stands second in the number of positive cases in Tamil Nadu at 126. Officials said tracing the contacts of the 61-year-old is proving to be a tough task since he is understood to have travelled to several places in Coimbatore from March 24 to April 9, the day he tested positive.

The state had identified people who were then asked to quarantine themselves at home s after checking their travel history. Tamil Nadu government has mandated all those returning from foreign countries and people who came in secondary contact with positive patients for 28 days.

The police had last month booked three persons, including a father-son under various sections of the IPC and two other acts for violating the home quarantine guidelines issued by the state government.