More proof of community spread of virus surfaces

TRIVANDRUM: The surfacing of a large number of COVID-19 cases with untraceable contacts hints at community transmission in Kerala, but the state remains in a denial mode.

Authorities, however, insist that the non-resident natives who have started returning, both from abroad and within India, lead to a spike in infections.

They continue to focus on testing the returning migrants while the local infections surfaced during limited sentinel surveillance or hospitalisations.

“As the migrants have started returning, there’s been a substantial rise in positive cases,” Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters here on Wednesday.

“But the fact that there was no increase in the number of contact cases (accordingly) and the mortality rate also remains very low gives us relief.”

On Tuesday, 19 more people contracted the disease through contacts, as the state’s tally of infections continued to rise.

On Wednesday, 151 more people, including 13 contacts, tested positive while 131 patients have recovered.

Of the 4,593 people tested positive so far, 2,130 are undergoing treatment.

With the swab test of a patient who committed suicide last week in Kozhikode turning positive, the number of deaths also rose to 26.

FIRST TRIBAL CASE: Efforts of the Kerala government to shield fragile tribal population from

COVID-19 pandemic has failed with reports of a community member contracting the Coronavirus emerging on Wednesday.

A 40-year-old woman from the Kattunaicker tribe from Thirunelly panchayat in Wayanad district tested COVID-19 positive on June 29.

She is the first tribal to be infected by the virus in the state. Her sample was taken once again and this, too, has now tested positive.

Sources said the results of the second test came on June 30 midnight.

“Since she was the only positive case in her group, her sample was taken once more. That, too, has now come positive,” Thirunelli panchayat president Mayadevi said.

The woman had returned from Virajpet in Karnataka on June 23 with four others, including her husband. They had been working in a ginger plantation in Virajpet for the last five months.

Tribals of Thirunelly work in ginger and coffee plantations in places just across the border.

Over 300 tribals in Thirunelly had returned in the last one-and-half-months from the ginger and coffee plantations in neighbouring states.

Also on Wednesday, the state health department has decided to purchase 100,000 antigen test kits for identifying COVID-19 cases. Medical Research Council permitted the department to use antigen test to diagnose the disease.