As many as 40 persons in Palakkad were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on Friday, while neighbouring Malappuram saw 18 fresh cases. The number of patients under treatment rose to 181 in Palakkad.
Among those who tested positive in Palakkad was a man from Tamil Nadu. While 35 patients had returned from other States and from abroad, five contracted the disease from primary contacts.
Seven persons who tested positive had returned from the UAE, nine from Tamil Nadu, 10 from Maharashtra, three from Andhra Pradesh, and one each from Delhi, Qatar, Kuwait, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Lakshadweep.
Three of the new cases were District Hospital workers. District Collector D. Balamurali said isolation and treatment facilities were set up at the District Hospital at Palakkad and the Kerala Medical College Hospital, Mangode, the two COVID-19 designated hospitals in Palakkad district.
As many as 15 people, including District Medical Officer, District Hospital Superintendent, V.K. Sreekandan, MP, Shafi Parambil, MLA, and District panchayat president K. Santhakumari, were asked to go in quarantine after three health workers were tested positive for the virus. All of them had attended the inaugural function of a COVID-19 testing laboratory at Palakkad on May 26.
Among the 18 new cases in Malappuram, seven had returned from abroad and six from other States. Five people had contracted the virus from primary contacts. Two of them are health workers and one a private lab technician.
In Kozhikode
Four new persons were added to the list of COVID-19 patients in Kozhikode district on Friday even as two others were cured of the infection.
As many as 80 health professionals, including doctors and medical students at the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode, have gone in self-quarantine after they were found to have interacted with a woman from Maniyoor who was tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 recently.
The first patient is a 42-year-old from Koduvally who returned from Mumbai by train on May 29 and had been at a COVID care centre. He was tested positive for the virus on June 1. The second patient, a 26-year-old native of Mavoor, and the third patient, a 42-year-old man from Atholi, had returned from Dubai on May 23. They too were tested positive for the virus on June 1. All the three were shifted to the first-line treatment centre at Lakshadweep Guest House.
The fourth patient, an 82-year-old from Kottuli, had been under treatment for cancer at the medical college hospital, and was tested positive for the virus on June 2.
The number of active COVID-19 cases here is now 48. The number of people under observation is 7,817, of whom 3,397 are expatriates.
Meanwhile, sources at the medical college hospital said that the woman from Maniyoor had been admitted for delivery on May 24. She was tested positive for the virus on June 2.
She had consulted doctors in the departments of surgery, paediatrics, neurology, and cardiology in the wake of complications during her delivery. However,the source of her infection is not known. The body fluid samples of the health workers have been collected for lab tests.
In Wayanad
Three more persons tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in Wayanad on Friday.
Two persons from Anjukunnu in Panamaram grama panchayat, including a 48-year-old and a 20-year-old who returned from Mysuru on May 28, and a 63-year-old who returned from Dubai on May 20 tested positive, said District Medical Officer R. Renuka. They have been shifted to the district hospital at Mananthavady.
The wife of the 63-year-old man died of COVID-19 at the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode on May 24, said Dr. Renuka.
As many as 3,835 persons are under observation.
