Thirty-seven staff members of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (Kerala RTC), working at the bus depot in Kannur, went into quarantine after a bus driver tested positive for coronavirus. The bus depot will continue to function and will not be disrupted in any way, District Medical Officer confirmed to TNM.
The RTC bus driver, who had been transporting passengers landing in Kannur airport, was diagnosed with the disease two days ago. Among the 51 primary contacts of the driver, 37 are staff members, including bus drivers and supervisors of the depot.
“We are still continuing the contact tracing. But certain reports that the bus depot will be shut down is false; the operations are continuing as usual,” Dr Narayana Naik, District Medical Officer (DMO) of Kannur, told TNM.
Similarly, over 35 staff at the Kozhikode International Airport (or Karipur airport) were asked to go into quarantine after a terminal manager tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on Saturday. The airport director, too, has been sent into quarantine.
Meanwhile, a man who was under observation at Ottapalam Taluk Hospital in Palakkad district is reported to have gone missing from the hospital. According to Palakkad District Medical Officer (DMO), the incident took place on Monday morning, around 5.30 am, after the man’s swab samples were collected for testing. While his COVID-19 test results are awaited, officials, including police, have started the search for the man.
According to Dr KP Reetha, the Palakkad DMO, the man was brought to the hospital by residents in the region after they saw him getting down from a lorry. “The man informed that he is in his early 30s, his native is Karunagappally in Kollam and that was going to Kochi. However, his responses to the staff were not to the point when they asked about his address. He ran away when the nurses had gone to pack the samples after collected his swabs,” Dr Reetha told TNM.
Earlier this month, there was a similar incident in Palakkad where a lorry driver who was under observation had escaped from the Palakkad District Hospital. Though his results later came as positive, the Tamil Nadu native could not be found. The officials are still not sure about his whereabouts.
“After he was diagnosed with COVID-19, and he could not be spotted, information was passed on to Tamil Nadu police,” the DMO said.
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