Chennai: The city’s Koyambedu wholesale market has turned into ‘Corona wholesale market’ with bulk of the 527 persons who tested positive for coronavirus over the past 24 hours linked to it, the state Health Department said on Monday.
It also said that one Covid-19 patient died, taking the total death toll to 31.
In a statement issued here, the Health Department said 527 persons, including four children less that two months old, tested positive for coronavirus taking the total infected persons’ tally to 3,550.
The total number of children tested positive in the state till date in the age group of 0-12 stands at 190.
The number of new infections in Chennai was at 266, taking the total to 1,724.
The statement said a large number of cases were connected to Koyambedu market and the number of active Covid-19 cases in the state stands at 2,107.
With retail sales at Koyambedu market shut down, many workers had gone to their native districts and were tested positive there.
The districts – Cuddalore, Villupuram, Chennai, Perambalur and Ariyalur – have the major concentration of Covid-19 patients connected to Koyambedu market.
According to officials, the names of truckers, loaders, vendors and others who were present and dealing at Koyambedu have been sent to their respective districts for tracing and testing.
Meanwhile the authorities have ordered closure of Koyambedu market and now vegetable wholesale trade will happen at Thirumazhisai from Thursday onwards.
“There are about 200 wholesale vegetable sellers and over 1,000 retail vegetable sellers operating in Koyambedu. The market also has traders in fruits and flowers. On a normal day, about 7,000 persons would visit these markets,” S. Chandran, President, Koyambedu Periyar Market Licensed Merchants’ Association told IANS.
Meanwhile, the Health Department also said that over the past 24 hours, a total of 12,863 samples were tested in the state.
A total of 30 Covid-19 patients were discharged from various hospitals in the state, taking the total tally to 1,409 persons.
–IANS
