The COVID-19 situation in the district continues to remain alarming with the caseload going up on Wednesday by 64 new cases, of which 54 were reported from Poonthura alone.
This is also the highest single-day spike in the district and the day's highest in the State.
An alarming factor is that a majority of the patients — 60 out of 64 — were infected through contact. This has prompted the administration to tighten lockdown measures at Poonthura which had been declared a containment zone on July 2.
New patients from this coastal ward of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation included several children, including a four-month-old baby.
A medical shop owner, a pharmacist, an AYUSH hospital volunteer, two fish vendors, and two auto drivers are also on the list. Beemapally, which borders Poonthura, reported one case, a 35-year-old male who contracted the disease through contact.
In Aryanad
The district administration has declared the whole of Aryanad grama panchayat a containment zone, even as two more persons from the region tested positive. The patients included a 54-year-old teacher and a 22-year-old male.
On Tuesday, six persons including a medical officer, two ASHA workers and a KSRTC station master had tested positive here, prompting the administration to step up vigil.
Kakkavila, Puthusheri and Puthiya Uchakada wards in the Karode grama panchayat are the other new containment zones in the districts.
Among the patients who tested positive were two men and a woman hailing from Tamil Nadu who had arrived in Thiruvananthapuram from Kuwait. Muttathara, Kidavilakom, Vattapara and Manacaud also reported one case each.
Surveillance
Meanwhile, 741 persons were newly placed under disease surveillance in the district, even as 694 others completed the observation period without developing symptoms. As many as 21,201 people are currently under surveillance in the district.
Tightening security measures, the city police registered cases against 251 people for breaching lockdown stipulations under the Kerala Epidemic Diseases Ordinance, 2020.
Cases were also registered against 208 others for failing to wear face masks properly, District Police Chief (Thiruvananthapuram city) Balram Kumar Upadhyay said.
