The number of fresh cases are on their way up, triggered mostly by the arrival of Malayalis from outside the state since May 6. There were 16 new cases and no recoveries on Friday, taking the number of active cases to 80.
Of this, 13 had come from the Gulf or other states since May 6; seven had come from the Gulf, four from Tamil Nadu and two from Mumbai.
No let up in Wayanad
Within Kerala, unrelated to the influx, there is a minor eruption in Wayanad. Two cases in the contact list of the truck driver from Koyambedu were declared positive on Friday; a one-year-old child who lives near the truck driver's house and the friend of the driver's son-in-law who had tested positive on May 14.
The truck driver has by now spread the virus to 15, and of this 13 are close relatives.
It has now come to light that the truck driver had conducted a small pre-marriage function of his son (who had also tested positive) at his house after his return from Koyambedu on April 29. The one-year-old girl and the son-in-law's friend who were declared positive were at the function.
Deepening the scare is the fact that this friend belongs to Tirunelli panchayat, a tribal area. Given the low immunity in the area, swift measures are being taken to insulate the region from other areas. It has also been decided to take random samples from the area to check for community transmission as the man who tested positive on Friday was very active in the panchayat.
A primary contact of another Koyambedu returnee who came infected to Wayanad last week was also declared positive on Friday. This was the elder brother of the returnee, a worker at a shop in Koyambedu market in Chennai, and he is said to have driven his younger brother and a friend all the way from Chennai to Wayanad. The samples of the friend, who had got down at Kozhikode, has still not been tested.
The other two positive cases in Wayanad are a pregnant lady and her husband who had returned from the Gulf.
Clean slate spoiled
The highest number of cases on Friday were recorded in Wayanad: 5. Malappuram has four; Alappuzha and Kozhikode have two each; and Kollam, Palakkad and Kasaragod have one each. Except for three cases in Wayanad, the rest are people who had returned from outside the state since May 7.
Now, Malappuram has the highest number of active cases: 19. Wayanad, which was in the green zone for 32 days, now has 18 active cases, and Kasaragod, 15. Thiruvananthapuram is the sole district with no active cases.
On Friday, 122 people were admitted to hospitals with symptoms. Malappuram tops the list of the most number of people admitted to hospitals on Friday: 36. Kozhikode has 17, and Kasaragod, 16.
Kasaragod has the most number of people admitted in hospitals: 211.
Till date 42,201 samples (including augmented samples) have been sent for testing out of which 40,639 or 96.26 per cent came as negative. Apart from the above, 4,630 samples were taken from priority groups like health care workers, persons with high social exposure etc. as part of Sentinel surveillance of which 4,424 samples or 95.55 per cent tested negative.
Burgeoning influx
With arrivals about to increase, both routine and surveillance testing will have to be ramped up.
Already 3,732 people, most of them living in labour camps in the Gulf, have returned from abroad in 17 flights. Of this, 36 have tested positive, and 10 of them are pregnant women. The results of their primary contacts, including co-passengers, are still pending.
As many as 2,85,880 Malayalis in other states have registered with the Norka website to reach Kerala by road. Till now, passes have been given to 1,23,972. By now, 47,151 have entered Kerala through six check-post.
Train arrivals are also potent sources of infection. At least 10 of the 1,045 passengers who came to Kerala on May 14 and 15 have shown symptoms and have been isolated.
Ships are even more cramped. Three people who had arrived in ships had tested positive in Tamil Nadu. This has prompted health authorities to closely monitor co-passengers who had reached Kerala in the same ship. At least 20 of them will have to be shifted to hospitals, putting undue strain on the health system.
The number of people under observation has shot up to 48,825. On May 1, only 21,499 were under observation.
