Curious case of COVID-19 spread in two villages in Malappuram

Coronavirus

Malappuram: There has been a sudden and dramatic spread of the virus in individuals with no travel history in two small panchayats in Malappuram: Vattamkulam and Edappal.

On June 26, five hidden virus-carriers were picked up as part of the augmented testing. On June 27 midnight, long after the numbers for the day were officially released by health minister KK Shailaja, five healthcare workers in the area were also declared positive. Their samples were taken as part of the sentinel surveillance being done on high-risk groups to check for community transmission.

Besides the 10 lately declared positive, a driver posted to the Vattamkulam panchayat had tested positive on June 12. All the 11 are from different parts of the Edapal-Vattamkulam area, come from various walks of life, and are unknown to each other.

On June 26, a bank officer, a housewife, a Kudumbashree worker, an autorickshaw driver and a KSRTC conductor were found positive. These five had not crossed paths; no one except the conductor had travelled in a KSRTC bus and the auto driver had not taken the other four in his vehicle.

“It is almost clear that the five had contracted the virus from separate mystery sources,” a top health official in Malappuram said.

And then, on June 27 midnight, five healthcare workers in the area were also declared positive; two doctors and two staff nurses of Subhapuram Hospital in Vattamkulam and one doctor in Edapal Hospital. Both are popular hospitals in the area, and one of the doctors is a sought-after paediatrician.

Complicating matters, a quick initial assessment has found that the five who were declared positive a day earlier had not visited any of the two hospitals.

The surprising unravelling of a bunch of positive cases has happened just when the Edapal area was settling down after a COVID-19 scare in the first week of June. On June 1, a vagrant who came from Tamil Nadu was tested positive.

The man was a common sight in the area, an alms-seeker who frequented crowded areas of Edapal town. When COVID-19 struck, he was shifted to a shelter home where food was reached from the community kitchen run by the panchayat.

The ward members and other panchayat officials made regular visits to the shelter during April and May. When the unlock phase began, the vagrant got out and began his usual rounds.

He was picked up for random testing on June 1 and his result was declared positive five days later on June 6. All this while he roamed wherever crowds gathered in Edapal and Vattamkulam.

After the tramp was tested positive, samples of panchayat officials, including that of ward members, were taken on June 7, and the panchayat office was closed. Five days later on June 12, the sample of the panchayat driver tested positive. Others were negative. By then, nearly 200 people were asked to go into quarantine.

"We thought things had calmed down and things started getting back to normal when this new wave has started," said Edapal panchayat president Bijoy P P. The samples of those who had tested positive now were taken at least a week ago and all were active in the community till the results were declared.

The results of 50-odd samples from Edapal and Vattamkulam, taken on June 20, are yet to come. The new developments have now made the collection of more samples from the area imperative.

Sources said the Edapal-Vattamkulam area is a Gulf pocket to which many non-residents have returned recently. The preliminary assumption is that the virus had transmitted outside from the returnees.

Guruvayoor KSRTC depot shut

Meanwhile, Guruvayoor KSRTC depot was shut after a conductor tested positive for coronavirus. The authorities also said that those who travelled in the Guruvayoor-Kanjani route on June 25 must remain alert and inform the health department immediately.

The same conductor was also on duty on June 12 and 22 on buses travelling to Palakkad and Vytilla in Kochi respectively.

Minister K T Jaleel has, however, said that the state has not yet reached the community transmission stage.

Kerala on Saturday registered 195 new COVID-19 cases, the highest single day spike in the state.

The state has been reporting 100-plus cases for the past nine days, but this is the first time the tally came near the 200-mark. The previous highest was June 23rd's 152.

Of Saturday's 195 cases, 15 are contact cases. Of them, five cases in Malappuram district were detected through the sentinel surveillance system – a very disturbing trend indeed.

Among the news cases, fifteen contracted the disease through contact. Of them, 10 are from Malappuram, two from Kollam and one each from Ernakulam, Thrissur and Kannur districts.

The state has reported 4,071 COVID-19 cases so far, out of which 2,108 persons have recovered. The remaining 1,939 patients are being treated in various hospitals.

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