Two expatriates, who had returned to the State by the first evacuation flights on May 7 with mild symptoms of COVID-19, have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
While one person had come by the Dubai-Kozhikode flight, the other had arrived by the Abu Dhabi-Kochi flight. Both are being treated in Kozhikode and Kochi respectively.
Mr. Vijayan said that the confirmation of COVID-19 in expatriates who had just come into the State was an indication that the State had to renew its vigil and strengthen its containment measures so that there was no resurgence of the disease again.
These are the first of the travellers who had been allowed to board the special flights after they underwent rapid antibody testing to rule out that they were not afflicted by the virus. The State had tested these passengers using RT-PCR to find active infection.
The State now has chalked up a total of 505 cases so far, out of which only 17 cases are currently undergoing treatment. A total of 485 patients have recovered from the disease.
The number of persons under surveillance in the State is 23,930, out of which, except for 334 in isolation in hospitals, the rest are on home quarantine.
Till date, the State has tested samples from 36,648 persons, of which 36,002 have returned a negative result. Of the sentinel surveillance testing samples of 3,475, a total of 3,231 samples have been negative.
