Kerala confirmed 49 more COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking the tally of active cases to 359. Twelve patients recovered on Monday, State Health Minister K K Shailaja informed.
Of the 49 cases, 14 are from Kasaragod and 10 from Kannur. Five cases each are from Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad, four from Kozhikode, three each from Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha, two each from Kollam and Kottayam and one from Idukki.
Eighteen cases are returnees from abroad (UAE - 12, Oman – 1, Saudi Arabia – 1, Abu Dhabi – 1, Maldives – 1, Kuwait – 1 and Muscat – 1). Twenty-five patients came from other states (Maharashtra – 17, Tamil Nadu – 4, Delhi – 2, Karnataka – 2). Six people contracted the disease through contacts. Of them, two are remand prisoners in Kannur and one is a healthcare worker in Thiruvananthapuram.
Of the patients who tested negative, six are from Kasaragod, two from Kollam and one each from Ernakulam, Idukki, Malappuram and Wayanad.
Toddler among infected
Of the 14 cases reported in Kasaragod, 13 came from Maharashtra and one from Dubai. Eight of those who came from Maharashtra are natives of Kumbala.
The new COVID-19 patients in Palakkad include a 10-month-old baby boy. The boy came to Kerala from Salala along with his mother and four-year-old sister. Two came from Chennai and two from Maharashtra.
Law Minister A K Balan on Monday expressed concerns over people violating quarantine rules. He said Palakkad has to be extra cautious as the district shares borders with Tamil Nadu. He warned of the possibility of community transmission if quarantine rules are not followed strictly.
He said there should be more effective intervention at panchayat level to check the spread of the virus. Balan was addressing reporters.
The lone case confirmed in Idukki is a 48-year-old man who had been quarantined at a centre in Munnar. He came to Kollam on May 20 from Navi Mumbai along with a family in a car. He was shifted to the quarantine centre the next day in an ambulance.
Those tested positive in Kottayam are a native of Nalukodi in Payippad panchayat who came back from Dubai on May 11 and a native of Irumboozhikkara near Vaikom who returned from Abu Dhabi on May 17. The former was home quarantined while the latter was staying at a quarantine centre at Gandhinagar.
So far, 97,247 people have returned to the state from abroad or other states. Of them, 8,390 came by flights, 1,621 by ships, 82,678 by road and 4,558 by trains.
Of the 99,278 people under observation for suspected infection, 98,486 are home/institutional quarantined and 792 hospitalised.
As many as 152 people were hospitalised on Monday.
Of the 54,899 samples sent for tests, 53,704 have returned negative. Samples of 8,110 people among priority groups were tested as part of sentinel surveillance. Of them, 7,994 have turned negative.
There are 59 hotspots in the state. The regions designated as hotspots on Monday are Pinarayi in Kannur, and Puthussery, Malampuzha and Chalissery in Palakkad.
