Fifty-one persons tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in Malappuram district on Saturday. As many as 27 of them contracted the disease through local transmission in Ponnani, where the government has imposed prohibitory orders.
District Collector K. Gopalakrishnan said that 19 patients had returned from abroad and five from other States. The number of infected persons currently under treatment in Malappuram rose to 497 on Saturday.
Four of the 27 persons infected through local contacts in Ponnani are above 60 years of age. Twenty of them are men and seven women from different strata of society. The youngest of them is a 22-year-old textile shop employee and the oldest a 72-year-old man. All of them were tested positive during a special examination held in Ponnani taluk.
More than 41,000 people are in quarantine in the district. So far 13,315 samples have been sent for testing, and 11,248 returned. The test result of 2,067 samples is yet to come.
District Medical Officer K. Sakeena asked those who had come into contact with the infected persons to go into home quarantine. They should also alert health officials. If they develop any symptoms, they should not approach a hospital directly. Instead, they should contact the district control room at 0483 2737858, 2737857, 2733251, 2733252, 2733253.
In Palakkad
Forty-eight persons, including a five-year-old girl, were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in Palakkad district on Saturday.
Twenty-two of them had returned from the UAE, seven from Tamil Nadu, four from Saudi Arabia, five from Karnataka, three each from Oman and Qatar, and one each from Delhi, the UK, Jammu and Kashmir and Kuwait.
The total number of infected persons currently under treatment in the district rose to 285 on Saturday. Apart from them, ten persons from Palakkad are being treated in other districts.
In Thrissur
Twenty-nine new cases were reported in Thrissur district on Saturday.
As many as 19 people who returned from abroad, including a two-year-old boy, and five persons who came from other States tested positive.
The wife and two children of a man from Kunnamkulam, who had tested positive earlier, were also infected on Saturday. The other patients are two BSF jawans. One was on airport duty and the other had arrived from Jharkhand.
Meanwhile, the District Medical Board has asked 10 people, including doctors at the Government Medical College Hospital, Thrissur, to go into quarantine as the samples of a woman from Arimbur, who collapsed and died at the hospital on July 5, were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. They were asked to remain in quarantine till July 21.
Valsala, 63, was brought to the medical college hospital after she collapsed at home. She died at the hospital. Though the TrueNat test was negative, the RT-PCR test of samples collected before post-mortem turned positive for SARS-CoV-2.
As COVID-19 has been reported at Vettilappara, strict restrictions have been imposed in Wards 2 to 7 of Athirappilly panchayat for the next seven days. Hotels and shops, except those selling essential goods, have been closed.
Tourists will not be allowed to Athirappilly.
In Kannur
In Kannur, 19 more people were tested positive on Saturday. Of them, five are foreign returnees, nine arrived from other States and four are Defence Security Corps (DSC) personnel and one person contracted the disease through local transmission.
Those who arrived from abroad include one person each from Kodiyeri, Chokli, Padiyoor and two persons from Munderi. Those who came from other States include one resident each of Chirakkal, Chembilode, Koothuparamba, Panoor, two residents of Vengadu and three from Thrippangottur panchayat. The infected DSC personnel include two from Uttarakhand, and one each from Kollam and Bihar. One person from Kunnothparamba tested positive for the virus after coming into contact with an affected person.
With this, the total number of COVID-19 cases reported in the district rose to 687. As many as 376 patients have been discharged from hospitals after treatment. There are currently 25,050 people under observation in the district.
District Collector T.V. Subhash has ordered to convert Aster MIMS Hospital in Kannur into a COVID-19 treatment centre. The move is part of efforts to provide more medical facilities in view of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the district.
A patient who was tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at the hospital has been asked to remain in the hospital. The order suggested the setting up of special blocks or rooms for COVID-19 treatment at the hospital in a manner that does not involve contact with other patients and is in compliance with COVID-19 norms.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to set up 700 beds in private hospitals in Kannur district. The decision was taken at a meeting of private hospital owners and IMA representatives chaired by Industries Minister E.P. Jayarajan on Friday.
All private hospitals in the district should prepare a list of beds and other facilities that can be provided for COVID-19 treatment and submit it to the District Collector through the District Medical Officer within a week.
In Kasaragod
Eighteen more people were tested positive in Kasaragod on Saturday. It includes seven people who contracted the disease through local contacts. They include a 74-year-old man, a 21-year-old woman and a three-year-old child of Mangalpadi panchayat; a 19-year-old from Kumbala panchayat; a 43-year-old woman from Meencha panchayat; a 10-year-old girl from Vorkady panchayat; and a one- year-old girl from Mangalpady panchayat.
Four people who arrived from other States have tested positive.They are a 38-year-old and a 36-year-old from Mogralputhur panchayat who came from Bengaluru in a car on June 27; a 58-year-old Mogralputhur panchayat resident who came from Maharashtra in a car on June 29; and a Mangalpadi native who arrived from Maharashtra by train on June 16.
The foreign returnees who have been infected are a 36-year-old resident of Mangalpady panchayat and a 47-year-old resident of Uduma panchayat who arrived from Qatar on June 29; a 25-year-old resident of Kasaragod municipality and a 33-year-old resident of Kanhangad municipality who arrived from Dubai on June 27 and June 25 respectively; a 39-year-old resident of Kallar panchayat who came from Kuwait on June 24; a 58-year-old resident of Thrikkarippur panchayat who came from Saudi Arabia on July 4; and a 32-year-old man from Pilicode who arrived from Saudi Arabia on July 1.
There are 6,416 people under observation in the district.
In Kozhikode
The number of people turning positive for SARS-CoV-2 through local transmission and whose source of infection is unknown continues to go up in Kozhikode while another first-line treatment centre (FLTC) was opened in the district on Saturday to treat asymptomatic persons infected of COVID-19 and those with mild symptoms.
The second FLTC has been set up at the hostel building of the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NIT-C) located at Chathamangalam. It has 380 beds. The centre will function under the Government General Hospital, Kozhikode. It has a nursing station, cafeteria, and recreation club and facility to collect samples of suspected patients. Food will be provided by Kudumbashree volunteers.
Meanwhile, 17 fresh COVID-19 cases were reported in the district on Saturday, of which eight were through contact with already infected persons. There were two whose source of infection is not known.
According to a release by District Medical Officer V. Jayasree, men aged 61, 37, and 31, a 36-year-old woman and two six-year-old children from Meenchanda had been in contact with a woman who was among the five persons tested positive for the virus on July 10. Another infected person, a 13-year-old girl from Vellayil, had been in contact with a security guard in an apartment in the area who was found infected after he committed suicide. She is the twelfth person to be part of the local transmission there. The eighth case of local transmission is a 34-year-old woman from Nadapuram whose husband had returned from the Gulf. So far there have been reports about local transmission from Vellayil, Kallai, Kolathara and Meenchanda.
The Kozhikode Corporation has placed severe restrictions on people visiting the civic body office till July 18.
The Corporation has announced that no services or queries pertaining to pensions will be entertained at the office till July 18. The same is applicable to those seeking the status of building permits and residential certificate applications and those visiting ward councillors.
Corporation Secretary Binu Francis said despite several restrictions and online facilities being made available, some people walked into the corporation office for apparently unnecessary reasons, putting themselves and the staff at risk.
Mr. Francis said permits for buildings up to 300 sq. m was being processed online. Visits to meet the councillors in their offices have been banned. People have been advised to contact the councillors over phone if necessary.
Meanwhile, local bodies in the district are preparing to strengthen the functioning of rapid response teams (RRT) comprising anganwadi workers, Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), Kudumbashree Mission volunteers, junior public health nurses and junior health inspectors with micro-level monitoring.
The number of households to be covered under the surveillance programmes will be increased so as to prevent all possibility of community spread at the ward-level itself. Ward members or councillors will be asked to coordinate the activities.
The participation of all residents’ associations will be ensured. The RRTs have been asked to monitor all small social gatherings in their areas.
In Wayanad
The number of cases continued to rise in Wayanad as 11 persons, including a health worker, were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on Saturday.
Three had returned from abroad and seven returned from Karnataka, District Medical Officer R. Renuka said. A doctor who was running a clinic at Kattikulam and working as consulting physician at Bavaly check-post in Karnataka was also tested positive, added Dr. Renuka. All the patients have been admitted to the district hospital at Mananthavady. Of the 152 cases reported in the district so far, 83 have been cured.
(With inputs from Palakkad, Thrissur, Kannur, Kasaragod, Kozhikode and Wayanad bureaus)
