Three more people tested positive for COVID-19 in the State on Monday. Two of them are in Malappuram and one in Kasaragod. With this, the total number of COVID-19 patients in the State rose to 24.
Of the three, two are from Dubai and one from Saudi Arabia. They had been put on home quarantine on their arrival itself, Health Minister K.K. Shylaja said.
With Keralites arriving in hordes from all over the world, the number of people under surveillance has been going up steadily. On Monday, 1,815 more people went into home quarantine, while another 72 were admitted to isolation wards in hospitals. The total number of those in home quarantine now is 12,470, while those isolated in hospitals is 270.
Helping foreigners
Briefing mediapersons after an all-party meeting held to discuss the COVID-19 situation, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan reiterated that tourism was very important for the State and that while Kerala was in for a long engagement with COVID-19, people should not give a bad impression about the State by treating foreign tourists with hostility.
He expressed concern that the COVID-19 containment efforts of the Health Department were being derailed by people who refused to observe home quarantine properly, in the process endangering more in the community.
He said more staff were being deployed and more counters were being opened at airports to ease the immigration process so that there was less crowding in airports.
He appealed to all religious places of worship to take all efforts to ensure that there was no crowding. No more than 100 persons should gather for weddings.
Junior medical students (first and second year MBBS) would be granted holiday as they have no role in clinical care.
The government has asked for the entire list of hospitals which are non-functioning in the State to create quarantine facilities.
Councillors quarantined
Six councillors of the Kozhikode Corporation have been advised to remain in home quarantine for the next 14 days after they flew back from Dubai on Friday after cutting short a visit to the Gulf. The CPI(M) councillors who had left for Dubai on invitation from friends and relatives on March 7 were scheduled to return on March 15.
The Health Department has launched a help desk at Kuttanellur, near Thrissur, since it has been confirmed that a British tourist who tested positive for COVID-19 had attended the Kuttanellur temple festival on March 8.
He was part of a 19-member tourist team that visited the Paramekkavu temple, Athirappilly and Cheruthuruthy.
