A Chennai based hairdresser who kept his salon open amid the lockdown has tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19), leaving his customers to remain under home quarantine as the health authorities are currently been tracing all the people whom he had come with direct contact, reports say.

According to the reports, a 36-year-old hairdresser is a resident of Valasaravakkam in Chennai and runs a hair salon shop in Koyambedu. He developed a fever on April 23rd following which he was admitted at the Kilpauk Medical College hospital in the city where he tested positive for COVID-19 on April 26th and it came to light that he kept his shop open amid the lockdown. 

The Health officials and Koyambedu police department have been tracing to locate all the persons he came in direct contact. The reports stated that he kept his salon open and also visited the homes of people to dress their hair and give a massage. The hairdresser has provided 25 contacts to the health officials. 

However, the officials have traced 32 people from Valasaravakkam, Koyambedu, and Nerkundram areas and they have been kept under home quarantine and the officials had collected their samples for further examinations.

The Koyambedu police department said that the hairdresser had been visiting about 15 customers directly in their homes daily and the department has currently been tracing all of them to ensure that the virus won't get a rampant spread. The police have stated that no official complaint would be lodged against the hairdresser, who carried out his business which neither permitted during the lockdown nor falls under the category of essential services. 

However, the officials are yet to identify the source of infection for the hairdresser. The state has been going through complete lockdown by suspending the operations of non-essential services to curb the spread of Coronavirus as it has been aiming to flatten the curve of affected cases. Chennai currently has the most number of affected cases in the state. The capital has reported 570 positive cases so far.