Authorities in Andhra Pradesh were on Sunday trying to trace the contacts of two men who have tested positive for COVID-19. They had returned from Paris and London a few days ago and stayed with their families before approaching hospital. With this the number of COVID-19 positive cases in the state rose to five. A 22-year-old man from East Godavari district was tested positive for coronavirus. He landed in Hyderabad from London on March 18 and the same day reached Rajahmundry by road. The second patient is from Vijayawada. The 24-year-old had landed in Delhi from Paris on March 15. He then boarded a flight to Hyderabad and reached Vijayawada by road on March 17. He approached the hospital with complaints of dry cough and fever. Both the patients were admitted to Government General Hospital, Kakinada.
Earlier, a case each was reported from Visakhapatnam, Prakasam and Nellore districts. All the patients had returned from abroad. Authorities were working to identify the contacts of the latest cases. The health department went on alert in Vijayawada as the patient number 5 had spent three days in the city. According to Krishna district collector Imtiaz Ahmed, the man was in home isolation on March 17 and 18. He said 500 houses around the affected person”s home were identified and teams were deployed to screen the residents. The collector said they were gathering details of the people he met since his arrival in Vijayawada. Efforts were also being made to trace the cab driver, who brought the man from Hyderabad to Vijayawada. The cab driver is learnt to have taken three people in his vehicle while returning to Hyderabad.
Since the survey was being taken up in 3-5 km radius around the affected person”s house, he sought people”s cooperation for rolling out cluster containment plan. A similar exercise was being taken up in Rajahmundry as the patient number 4, who had landed in Hyderabad from London via Dubai, hired a cab to reach Rajahmundry. He stayed with the family for two days. Officials said universal screening was on for the passengers reaching Visakhapatnam International Airport and sea ports. A total of 11,640 passengers and crew have so far been screened at these ports of entry. The health authorities have so far tested 160 samples. Out of them, 130 samples were tested negative while the result was awaited in 25 other cases.
