It looks like the virus is finding it extremely easy to latch on to multitudes of new hosts along the Thiruvananthapuram coast. On Monday, too, over 85 per cent of the 161 cases reported from the district were from the coastal areas.
All the major coastal clusters had high numbers: Karumkulam, which incudes the costal ward of Pulluvila, reported 19 positive cases when 51 tests were held on Monday. In Poonthura, the first large cluster along the coast, 12 were found infected when only 21 were tested, a positivity rate of over 57 percent. Beemapally area had 22 cases when 50 tests were done.
Kadinamkulam panchayat, under which falls the fishing hamlets of Puthukurichy and Marianad, had 21 when 50 tests were held. In nearby Anchuthengu, 18 were found infected when 50 tests were conducted.
Efforts to contain the virus within these clusters have clearly lost steam. The buffer regions around these clusters have now become as infected as the initial clusters. Kottukal panchayat near Pulluvila (Karumkulam), which has two coastal wards Adimalathura and Ambalathumoola, for instance, had 18 positive cases when 38 tests were done, a positivity rate of 47.4 percent.
By now, Kottukal has 115 positive cases in total after 210 tests; an overall positivity of 54.8 per cent, which experts say is an indication of the presence of a large number of hidden cases.
Pozhiyoor, a coastal ward in Kulathoor panchayat, too is emerging as a new cluster. Nine fresh cases were spotted when 50 tests were held on Monday. But in the last two tests, there were 11 and 21 cases respectively.
New cases have been reported from places like Valiyathura that were till now considered safe. On Monday, six were found positive in Valiyathura, and the source of infection of four in a family is unknown. "This is a family of four; father, mother and two girls. The parents don't go to work and are rarely seen outside. The family's earnings come from the tuition classes the two girls conduct. But no tuition classes were held in the last two-and-a-half months," said Sheeba Patrick, the Valiyathura councillor.
No tests were held on Monday in buffer zones like Thiruvallom where 43 positive cases were picked in three tests.
As if the spreading virus and the encroaching sea were not enough, the coastal folk continue to be discriminated against. On July 26, a 35-year-old who was found unconscious in Poonthura was denied admission in a nearby private hospital. He died at the Medical College that day itself.
"They took him out of the ambulance but when they knew that he was from Poonthura they said the ICU was full," said Peter Solomon, the Poonthura councillor. "The residents here are severely hurt," Solomon said.
