58 staffers of Kovai jewellery test +ve, search on for contacts

This caused concern among officials as it came at a time when the district is witnessing a spike in cases. Following this, officials from the Health Department have asked all customers who visited the showroom in the recent days to undergo test and quarantine themselves.

Officials of the Health Department said that a customer who visited the showroom tested positive for the virus infection a day ago. Thereafter, nearly 100 staff of the showroom were subjected to testing on Sunday. Of these, 58 employees have tested positive so far. The infected persons have been admitted to different hospitals and COVID care centres for treatment.

Officials believe that these numbers are likely to increase once the process of contact tracing is done and their family members are also tested. They have also asked people who visited the showroom to undergo testing and quarantine themselves until then.

The showroom has been temporarily closed and is being sanitised. A case has been registered against the management of the store under the Epidemics Diseases Act for negligence and for failing to take precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the infection.

This emergence of a new cluster comes even as the number of infection cases refuses to slow down, with Coimbatore recording 392 infections on Tuesday and 393 cases on Monday.

This is the second case where jewellery store employees were tested positive to the virus. In June, three employees of another store had tested positive, a day after more than 30 employees were brought from Chennai to Coimbatore without e-pass. The showroom was sealed and its manager was booked.