At least five people who attended a wedding at Trikaripur near Kerala's northern district of Kasaragod have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Following this, the health authorities have decided to screen all those who attended the wedding. Kasaragod District Medical authorities on Wednesday confirmed the development and said efforts were on to trace all the contacts.
"There are five people (who tested positive) but we are tracing all the contacts and the tests will be done by tomorrow," a senior official said. "Such a matter was reported but it seems like the number of attendees were under the prescribed limit," a police official told PTI.
Kasaragod reported 49 positive cases on Wednesday, out of which 32 had contracted the virus through contact.
This is the latest incident where events such as weddings and funerals are turning out to be COVID-19 clusters in some places in Kerala.
Taking a serious view of such incidents, the government had on Tuesday said a maximum of 20 people would only be allowed to participate in marriages or funerals, lowering the limit of guests from 50.
More than 70 people had been recently infected after attending a marriage and a funeral in Kozhikode and Wayanad districts respectively.
Meanwhile, officials said 23 more people tested positive for coronavirus in Thavinhal panchayat in Wayanad, taking the total infections related to the funeral to 76. Eight members of two families, who attended the funeral in the area, had recently tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, following which authorities tested 210 people who came in contact with them.
"As on date, there are 76 positive cases in Thavinjal panchayat alone. More tests are being done in the area," District Medical Officer Dr R Renuka told PTI.
Wayanad accounted for 43 cases out of the 903 new infections reported in Kerala on Wednesday. With this, the state's tally has crossed the 21,000-mark.