When Dharmapuri district reported one new COVID-19 case on april 23, krishnagiri, its northern neighbour, became the only district untouched by the novel coronavirus infection in tamil Nadu. Since then, all eyes have been on krishnagiri for being the only green zone district in the state, not having reported any COVID-19 cases. This, however, changed on May 4 when two women, aged 52 and 60-years-old respectively, tested positive for novel coronavirus SARS-CoV2. On wednesday, two more cases came to light from krishnagiri, quickly raising its number of infected patients to four.
Interestingly, krishnagiri had a near miss on May 1, when a 67-year-old man who returned from puttaparthi after a pilgrimage, tested positive for the infection. However, this case was counted in salem district as an “imported case,” since health officials shared that he was stopped at the Krishnagiri-Salem border. The district’s previously given “green” status meant that industries were allowed to resume activities from May 5. As a consequence, this warranted employees from other parts of the country to return to the district, which is a hub for the auto-component sector. Notably, manufacturing giants such as ashok Leyland Ltd., TVS Motors Ltd., india Pistons Ltd., etc are housed in Hosur.
The latest two cases have been detected in employees who returned from Maharashtra. While krishnagiri has managed to remain corona-free for over 40 days, the district faces a unique challenge now given its geographical location. “We are a border district a border to kerala, karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. We are one of the major entry points for travellers coming in from other states to tamil Nadu. Therefore, we have tightened security at all the check posts,
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