Virudhunagar District reports over 600 fresh COVID-19 cases in 6 days

After increasing the number of beds in hospitals and COVID care centres following manifold increase in number of patients testing positive for novel coronavirus disease in Virudhunagar district since June 1, the administration is now attempting to increase the number of medical officers, nurses and paramedical staff. On Wednesday, the district administration invited applications from qualified persons for temporary posts of medical officers, nurses and paramedical workers. “We do not have any specific number of posts for recruitment. We are getting ready to have adequate number of manpower in health department as per government instructions. The temporary doctors and nurses could also be used by other districts, if required,” Virudhunagar Collector, R. Kannan, said.

Sharp increase

Virudhunagar district reported the first positive case in Rajapalayam on March 28. Since then, the number increased only in single digits and sometimes in double digits till May 15, when the number of cases was around 46. However, following influx of people from the hotspots of Chennai in the month of June, the positive numbers saw big jumps every day. From 124 positive cases as on June 1, it grew by more than four times and stood at 493 by end of June. In the last eight days, the number has increased by another 800 and the total stood at 1,298 as on July 8. Besides, 10 patients died in the last 20 days. “Swab tests are being conducted at 21 places in the district. However, this is not enough considering the number of people turning up for the test. In many places, people have to come again the next day to give their samples,” said Communist Party of India (Marxist) Virudhunagar district secretary, K. Arjunan. The number of testing centres needs to be increased further, he added. He also complained that the results of tests came with inordinate delay of five to six days. “The administration should ensure that those who give samples are either home quarantined or quarantined at government facilities to prevent further spreading of the infection,” he said.

The Collector said that contacts of positive people were kept in institutional quarantine till their results were out. The delay in announcing results of the samples was due to limited testing facility and increased number of samples taken. “Now, we have got three RT-PCR equipment at the Virudhunagar Government Medical College hospital and we can test around 950 samples every day. Once the backlog of cases is cleared, the results would be known the next day after taking samples,” he said. Similarly, as the beds in government hospitals started filling up faster in the last 10 days, the administration is getting ready with two COVID-19 care centres. “One with 250 beds is ready at Sivakasi. We will add 250 beds at Sivakasi and another 250 beds at Krishnankoil will be ready very soon,” he said. All asymptomatic patients or patients with mild symptoms would be admitted to the COVID-19 care centres. The administration is planning to have one doctor in a shift for every 100 patients at the centre and few paramedical staff and nurses. Mr. Arjunan said that the administration should look into the complaints over quality of food served to the patients at the hospitals.