At least 20 people were booked on Wednesday for allegedly attending an Iftar party in violation of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions at a locality in Wayanad district in Kerala.
A case has been registered against 20 people for participating in the Iftar party at the house of a 45-year-old in Nenmeni area of Wayanad district. The district was declared as a hotspot for coronavirus on Monday in view of the recent spike in the cases.
"We received information about an Iftar party being organised at a house in Nenmeni. It was declared as a hotspot. We went there and found the people and their vehicles. A case has been registered against the house owner and those who participated," said police from Ambalavayal police station who visited the residence based on a tip-off.
While cases have been booked under sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act, and sections of Indian Penal Code, no arrests have been made in the case, reported The New Indian Express.
As per the latest health department, Wayand has 11 active COVID-19 cases, the highest in the state. On Wednesday, Kerala reported 10 new cases and 41 persons are presently under treatment in various hospitals across the state.
Of the ten who tested positive, three are from Malappuram, two each from Wayanad and Palakkad districts and one each from Kottayam, Kannur and Kozhikode districts.
The two persons tested positive from Wayanad are police personnel of the Mananthavady police station who were on lockdown duty. They were contacts of a truck driver who had returned from the Koyambedu market in Chennai tested positive on May 2, by then he had transmitted the disease to nine people.
Four of the infected people reported on Wednesday had come from abroad, two from Chennai and four had been infected through contact, a government press release said.
With the addition of the fresh cases, the tally of those infected has gone up to 534.
Wayanad Collector Dr Adila Abdulla said the samples of all those who had come in contact with the truck driver would once again be tested. As a precaution, the Kerala police had also quarantined 50 of their officers in the district, including the Deputy Superintendent of Police for the region.
The driver's wife and daughter and grandchild were among those who were infected. His daughter's samples had earlier tested negative.
(With PTI Inputs)