In a relief to Puducherry, all160 people engaged in vegetable business and been to Koyambedu market in Chennai which has emerged the latest super spreader of coronavirus, or come into contact with returnees have tested negative for the contagion, a senior health department official of the union territory said on Tuesday.Samples of 160 people were tested by a team of doctors on Monday and all of them returned negative, Director of Health and Family Welfare Mohan Kumar said.The sprawling Koyambedu market, one of the largest in the country receiving supplies from even far off districts, has turned out to be the latest COVID-19 hotspot as a large number of traders and loadmen, who came from different parts of Tamil Nadu, tested positive for the virus in recent days.Approximately around 600 cases out of the over 3,500 in the neighbouring state are linked to the market, which has since been shut and about 200 functional shops shifted to a suburban location by the authorities on Monday.Meanwhile, Puducherry Assembly Speaker V P Sivakolundhu appealed to Lt Governor Kiran Bedi and Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, who have been at loggerheads over various issues for a long time, to bury the hatchet and work in tandem in the larger interest of the UT especially when it was facing an extraordinary situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.If the two did not work in unison, the situation would worsen in the union territory in the days to come, he said.Briefing the media on COVID-19 situation, Narayanasamy said two areas -- Muthialpet and Tirukanoor -- in the UT have been removed from the list of containment zones following recovery of COVID-19 patients.However, Reddiarpalayam, Ariyankuppam and Tiruvandarkoil continued to be containment zones.He said police and revenue authorities were now preventing people from neighbouring Cuddalore and Villupuram districts, where COVID-19 cases are higher, from getting into Puducherry limits. All the border points close to districts in Tamil Nadu have been sealed as part of the lockdown.Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao told reporters that he has requested the Chief Minister to let all liquor shops reopen in Puducherry as already the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have announced their decisions to let the outlets function and people from the UT might cross the border to get their favourite tipple."If we do not reopen the shops in Puducherry and outlying regions of Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam people from the UT would cross over to the neighbouring states. The scope for infection would be more," he said.Further, Puducherry government also needed revenue and hence the shops should be permitted to restart business, he contended.He said presently there were only three patients -- two in Puducherry and one in Mahe, an enclave of the UT in Kerala, undergoing treatment for COVID 19.In a statement, Speaker Sivakolundhu said repeated statements and counter statements by the two constitutional authorities and Ministers and legislators holding dharna and other agitations against the Lt Governor would never be of any help.Recently, Bedi and the chief minister had sparred over distribution of rice to above poverty line families during the lockdown.Bedi gave conditional nod to the government move even as Welfare Minister M Kandasamy and some ruling Congress MLAs staged a sit-in protest demanding that she facilitate the implementation of the initiative."These activities have come to cause concern particularly when Union Territory is now faced with an extraordinary situation (caused by pandemic)," the Speaker said."I therefore make a fervent appeal to the Lt Governor and Chief Minister to bury the hatchet and work in a coordinated manner. This is the expectation of the people...," he added.
