Thiruvananthapuram alone accounted for 201 cases in Kerala on Tuesday and 158 of them, or nearly 80 per cent of them, are in the containment zones of Poonthura and its buffer zones like Venganoor and Kottapuram along the western coastal edge of the district.
The other major cluster is at the southeast fringe of the district, along the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.
A major concern is that among the infected on Tuesday, 23 are children below the age of 15, including five kids aged three or below, and 24 are above the age of 60, and this includes six above 80 and one of them above 90.
Virus displays dazzling infectivity
In the densely populated coast, where it is normal to see two to three families stuffed in two-room box structures and where reverse quarantine is practically impossible to follow, it is the super-charged nature of the infection that has worried health authorities.
For instance, 18 of the 27 samples taken in one health centre at Poonthura were found positive today. Another collection centre just a kilometre away took 150 samples and 65 of them turned positive. The virus seems to be on fire in these coastal wards.
Considerably lower number of tests are being done in nearby buffer zones like Venganoor and Kottapuram wards where it is feared the spread is as widespread as in Poonthura, Manikyavilakom and Puthenpally wards.
On Tuesday, only 50 samples were taken in Venganoor ward and 10 had tested positive. The same number of tests were conducted in Kottapuram ward, another buffer zone, and eight were declared postive.
Is Vizhinjam the new coastal hostspot?
This is proof enough of the rampant spread of the virus in buffer zones but health authorities have informed Venganoor ward member Santosh Kumar P that no tests would be conducted in the next two days. "I don't understand why they are doing this when it is clear that there are many undetected COVID-19 cases here," Santosh told Onmanorama.
Kottapuram ward member Shini said she had not received any such intimation. "Rather than stopping tests the health people should actually be increasing the number of tests," she said.
District health authorities said they now wanted to focus on hitherto untested wards like Vizhnjam and Vizhinjam Harbour. These are wards where the fisherfolk from the entire coastal area in the district gather during the monsoon months to go fishing.
"It is usual for fishermen from Poonthura, Puthenpally, Beemapally, Kottapuram, Mulloor and Venganoor to come to the Vizhinjam harbour area to begin their fishing expedition. During the rainy season it is dangerous to set off for fishing from their places. So our suspicion is that they could have infected people in Vizhinjam areas," a district health official said.
If the fear turns true, Vizhinjam could be the next hotspot in the coming days.
A kiss that went wrong
The virus is having a big run on the western side of the district, especially in Parassala, because of the region's close ties with Tamil Nadu. Tuesday alone, there were 12 cases in Parassala grama panchayat.
Panchayat president S Suresh said 12 more were tested positive by evening. However, these would be added to the tally only tomorrow (July 15).
Parassala's fate is so connected to Tamil Nadu that seven people who were declared positive on Tuesday belong to Ayinkamam, a ward fully trapped inside Tamil Nadu. "A youth in Ayinkamam had married a Tamil girl. Recently she got pregnant and her relatives from Tamil Nadu, as is customary, came over to Ayinkamam to take the girl to her home," Suresh said.
All the seven declared positive belong to the girl's husband's family, and this includes a three-year-old child. "One of the guests, I am told, gave the child a peck on the cheek," Suresh said.
