With four patients in the isolation ward of the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) in Kottayam testing positive for COVID-19, the district has swung into a high-alert mode against the disease outbreak.
According to officials, the daughter and son-in-law of the virus affected NRI family from Pathanamthitta, who reside at Chengalam, near Kottayam, have been tested positive for COVID-19. This is in addition to the elderly parents of the NRIs, who were shifted to the MCH here the other day.
“The condition of the younger couple is stable, while the elderly couple is experiencing some age-related issues,” said an officer with the District Health Department. The authorities are now awaiting the test result of the samples collected from the four-year-old son of the couple.
Following the development, the authorities have intensified efforts to identify the persons, who came into close contact with the family. Officials said the couple had disclosed details of 15 persons with whom they interacted closely before being admitted to the isolation ward on March 8.
Further, the authorities have also identified as many as 33 persons who contacted the couple in close circle, with the help of local body authorities and put the entire persons under surveillance. As part of the exercise, District Collector P.K. Sudheer Babu has constituted six teams for field visits and a separate team for overall monitoring. Additionally, medical teams will be dispatched to Thiruvarpp and Kumarakom panchayats for visiting the houses and ascertain the ground situation.
Meanwhile, two more persons, a 29-year-old man from Thodupuzha and a 50-year-old woman from Thiruvarpp, near Kottayam, have been admitted to the isolation ward, taking the total number of persons in isolation wards to 10. As many as 167 persons are in home quarantine in the district.
