The police on Monday registered cases against 11 persons in Wayanad district for skipping the 14-day home quarantine made mandatory for those returning from abroad as part of the precautions against COVID-19. The police seized their passport and served notices after registering cases against them under sections of the Indian Penal Code, Kerala Police Act, and the Kerala Public Health Act.
Among them were two persons from Vengara in Malappuram, who rented a room at a resort at Meppadi in the district after they reached Kozhikode from Qatar on March 15. Though they were asked to go on home quarantine at the airport, they skipped it and stayed at the resort without revealing their identity, the police said. The police quarantined them at the resort along with four others.
Likewise, a five-member team from Kannur stayed at a resort at Ambalavayal in the district on Sunday jumping quarantine. They reached Kozhikode airport on Sunday morning and rented the room by noon.
They told the police that they had stayed with a COVID-19 positive person in Dubai and feared that the disease might be transmitted to their family, if they went home directly.
They were transferred to an isolation facility in Kannur in an ambulance. The police also registered cases against four others, two each under Mananthavady and Panamaram police station limits, for ignoring the directives regarding home quarantine.
Priest arrested
Fr. Pauly Padayatti, who conducted a Mass with 100-odd devotees at the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Koodappuzha, near Chalakudy, was arrested on Monday. A case was registered against the devotees for attending the Mass violating the government instructions to avoid gathering on a large scale. The Mass was held at 6.15 a.m. on Monday.
