Kottayam on Wednesday reported one more case of virus infection with the 29-year-old mother of a two-year-old COVID-19 patient being tested positive for the disease.
According to officials, the duo had landed from Kuwait on May 9 and were shifted to the Government Medical College Hospital from home quarantine on Tuesday evening. The woman, a native of Uzhavoor, is seven months pregnant. An earlier serum sample collected from her had been rejected due to technical reasons, following which the authorities sent a fresh sample the other day.
As per estimates, 224 people including 64 pregnant women and 10 children have landed in Kottayam from various overseas destinations since May 7. Besides the mother-infant duo, one more pregnant woman has been admitted to hospital here for observation. Of the remaining persons, 105 are in institutional quarantine while the remaining 16 remain in home quarantine.
Meanwhile, discontent is brewing among a section of migrant labourers over the inability of the authorities in sending them back home.
Earlier on Tuesday evening, a group of migrant workers in Paippad had approached the police seeking urgent action to take them home. After repeated attempts to convince them did not yield, the police resorted to a mild lathicharge to disperse the crowd.
Taking a serious note of the situation, the police have heightened security in and around the region. The village, a hub of inter-State migrant workers in Kottayam, has been on the edge ever since a massive protest was staged by about 2,000 workers in March with a demand to send them back.
Officials attribute the non-cooperation from the destination States including West Bengal to the delay in operating Shramik Special train services from the district. Indeed, they had completed the proceedings to send back nearly 21,000 migrant workers from various States around a week ago.
