Thiruvananthapuram continues to top the number of fresh cases, with a new virus cluster developing at Pulluvila near Poovar. Poonthura and Parassala clusters continue to fester. There were not many cases in the heart of the city but five healthcare workers were declared positive in city areas.
There are, however, unconfirmed reports that 61 employees of a retail outlet in the city, Ramachandra Hyper Market, have tested positive on the day. The outlet is hugely popular as essential commodities, household goods and textiles could be purchased at a bargain. The employees, it is said, were put together in a dormitory-like complex nearby. These numbers were not included in the figures announced by the chief minister on Wednesday.
Wednesday's tally was 157, a bit lower than the 201 recorded the previous day. However, if the Ramachandra number was also added, it would have been 218. As on other days, the substantial chunk of the cases were concentrated along the coastal areas of the district. Over 50 cases were reported in the containment zones of Poonthura and Manikyavilakom and the buffer zones of Kottapuram and Venganoor.
Alarmingly, an equal number was reported from a smaller area outside the Corporation limits, in Karumkulam panchayat, a coastal village generally known as Pulluvila and closer to Poovar. As many as 51 people were found positive when 142 tests were conducted in the panchayat on Wednesday.
Too big to contain
The virus spread in Poonthura looks way out of control. Even today's tally, ward members say, is deceptively low. In a place where over 150 tests were conducted daily for over a week, only 50 tests were conducted for both Poonthura and Manikkavilakam wards together on Wednesday. Even then 35, or 70 per cent, tested positive, a figure a top Health official Onmanorama talked to said was “distressingly high”.
The number of tests in Poonthura region were reduced to increase tests towards the southern part of the coast, especially in the Vizhinjam area. The number of positive cases in Vizhinjam turned out to be surprisingly low; 50 samples were taken and only two tested positive. “Both are auto drivers and both belong to other wards like Venganoor and Kottukal,” Vizhnjam councillor N A Rasheed.
Even health workers in the area are baffled. “People in Vizhinjam have as much links to Kumarichantha fish market as those in Poonthura. There is already a feeling among representatives of other wards that such people and their families have not yet been tested in Vizhinjam. If it is so, then virus-carriers are freely mingling in the society unaware of their status. This will be rectified and people potentially more vulnerable will be picked up for tests in the coming days,” the official said.
Mystery cluster in Karumkulam
Karumkulam, some 20 kms south of Poonthura, is the new scare spot. “We have no idea how the infection has spread so rapidly here,” said G Anilkumar, the Karumkulam panchayat president. It is true that some who had tested positive had done business with Kumarichantha fish market.
But in the panchayat, the virus was first reported in a cardiac patient who had gone to Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) for treatment. “He had no travel history or links to high-risk regions like Kumarichantha,” Anilkumar said.
Three autorickshaw drivers in the area have also tested positive but Anilkumar said none had any links to the Poonthura area. The panchayat president is bracing for even worse news. “Testing had been done only in half the wards. I don't know the number we will throw up when samples from the rest of the wards are also taken,” he said.
Parassala's dilemma
On the western tip of the district bordering Tamil Nadu, Parassala panchayat had been taking some solace from the fact that it were mostly families with links to Tamil Nadu, either by marriage or business, that were testing positive.
On Wednesday, 24 tested positive in the panchayat and out of this three were autorickshaw drivers who ply within the panchayat and four were gas delivery boys. “All of a sudden, we have no idea what to do. Cooking gas delivery is essential service and people have started calling me in panic,” Parassala panchayat president Suresh said.
