The COVID-19 curve is going up exponentially in Alappuzha with 119 people testing positive for the disease on Monday.
The COVID-19 cluster related to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) unit at Nooranad widened after 78 more personnel were found to have contracted the disease.
Last week, 54 ITBP personnel at the unit tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, taking the tally there to 132. The unit houses 375 personnel, while some personnel along with their families live outside the compound.
“Those diagnosed with COVID-19 have been admitted to hospitals and others were shifted to various facilities and put in individual quarantine. The entire barrack has been evacuated. Besides, ITBP personnel living outside have been put in home quarantine. All those tested negative for SARS- CoV-2 and observing individual quarantine will be tested again,” District Collector A. Alexander said.
Earlier, three grama panchayats- Nooranad, Palamel and Thamarakulam were declared as large cluster/containment zones after ITBP personnel tested positive for COVID-19. “At present, all the ITBP personnel who contracted the disease belong to a single barrack. The personnel used to visit shops and other facilities outside their compound. This increases the risk of disease transmission,” said a Health Department official.
Meanwhile, five people contracted the disease through contact (local transmission) in the district. They include a 28-year-old-woman on the contact list of a fisherman from Pattanakkad who tested positive last week; a 56-year-old man native of Pallithode on the contact list of a COVID-19 patient also from Pallithode; a 37-year-old man, part of COVID-19 prevention network, hailing from Perumbalam; a 56-year-old man native of Pallithode and a 52-year-old man from Manakodam. The source of infections of the latter two is unknown.
Of the rest of the cases logged on Monday, 27 had come from abroad and nine from other States.
Pulinkunnu
All wards in Pulinkunnu grama panchayat were declared as containment zones. Earlier two persons from the panchayat were diagnosed with COVID-19. While one person was tested positive posthumously, another is an employee of a seafood company at Ezhupunna. So far, 30 employees of the company were diagnosed with the disease.
Meanwhile, six people who were undergoing treatment for COVID-19 tested negative for the disease. The number of active COVID-19 cases in the district stands at 507.
