Coronavirus: Food delivery executive in Chennai tests positive, had visited 100 houses

A day after Chennai recorded the highest-single day spike in COVID-19 positive cases, a food delivery executive working with Swiggy has tested positive for Coronavirus. The delivery person who is believed to have visited at least 100 houses since the lockdown has been isolated and is undergoing treatment. Fortunately, all his six family members have tested negative for the deadly virus. 

At present, Swiggy is coordinating with the state health department to trace the customers that the infected executive had dealt with. The case comes despite Swiggy disabling cash payments to restrict contact between the delivery executive and customer. In a similar incident earlier, a pizza delivery executive had tested positive for COVID-19 in Delhi. 

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Chennai witnesses spike in cases

As the Coronavirus cases are increasing at an alarming rate in the state of Tamil Nadu, the capital of the state Chennai is the worst-hit city for the deadly COVID-19 infection. Out of the 121 cases reported in the state on Tuesday, Chennai alone reported 103 confirmed Covid-19 cases, while 32 of the 37 districts in the state had zero cases on Tuesday. With the highest-ever spike in a day, the state’s testing rate has also doubled.

According to reports, the state has tested over one lakh samples till Wednesday, and the testing rate of Chennai alone was five times more than other districts in the state and the average increase of infections was 9.4 per cent for Chennai against 3.7 per cent for the entire state.

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CM Chairs a review meeting on COVID situation

Chief Minister E Palaniswami, chairing a review meeting of top officials at the Secretariat on Tuesday, said cases in the state were on the rise as people have a casual attitude towards norms like social distancing and do not understand the gravity of the contagion.

"The problem lies in the vegetable markets of big corporations like Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli and Madurai. Despite telling people (on precautions to be taken against COVID-19 like social distancing), they do not follow it and take it casually. They don't understand the intensity and impact of this disease," he said.

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