The confirmation of a dozen new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, after a brief lull, has again set the alarm bells ringing in Kerala.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, briefing media, spoke of tightened regulations to keep people more at home. He announced a virtual lockdown of Kasaragod district after it emerged that the violation of home quarantine norms by a Non-Resident Indian, who has since turned positive for COVID-19, could have passed on the infection to the entire community.
Of the 12 new confirmed cases, six were in Kasaragod, five in Ernakulam and one in Palakkad district. The number of patients in the State at present is 37. This is in addition to the three Wuhan-based cases reported in the first wave of infection.
Five in Ernakulam
The five cases in Ernakulam are British nationals. They are members of a tourist group that had been staying in Munnar and were prevented from flying out of Kochi after one of their mates tested positive. They have all been moved to the isolation ward at Government Medical College Hospital, Ernakulam.
The Palakkad case is a person who has come from the U.K. He has also been admitted at the Ernakulam MCH.
Two of the Kasaragod cases are Dubai returnees, while another two cases are the primary contacts of an earlier positive case. The details of the other two cases are being collected.
Kerala added another 13,632 persons to the surveillance network on Friday, taking the total number of persons under surveillance to 44,390. Among them, 225 persons are admitted in isolation wards in hospitals, while the rest are in home quarantine. Mr. Vijayan said dire measures were needed in Kasaragod where the entire district would have to be put under strict surveillance and a virtual lockdown.
