After a Thrissur based health worker tested positive for coronavirus, the Kerala Agriculture Minister has gone into quarantine for COVID-19. VS Sunil Kumar, who is the representative from Thrissur constituency and is leading COVID-19 prevention activities in the state, had come in contact with the health worker during a meeting held on June 15.
The minister had convened the meeting at the Thrissur corporation office to discuss prevention activities. It was at this meeting, which was reportedly attended by 13 persons, that the health worker who later tested positive had participated.
Following this, the minister has gone into quarantine at his official residence. According to reports, the Agriculture Minister has said that his additional private secretary, too, has gone into quarantine after the health worker tested positive.
The minister added that he will be taking a COVID-19 test and then following the guidelines given to him by the Medical Board regarding quarantine.
According to reports, the health worker is a senior officer in the health department of the Thrissur corporation. Earlier in June, four sanitation workers from Thrissur had tested positive for the virus.
Among health workers who tested positive in the district are a 51-year-old from Chavakkad; a 30-year-old from Kuriachira and 34-year-old woman from Parappur were among COVID positive cases on Thursday.
On Sunday, Kerala reported 1490 COVID-19 cases with Thrissur reporting 16 new cases, Palakkad 15, Kollam 13, Idukki 11 and Alappuzha, Kottayam, Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kannur 10 cases each.
Nine cases were reported from the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram, eight from Pathanamthitta, six from Kasaragod and five from Ernakulam. A health worker also tested positive from Idukki’s Kattappana, whose contacts are now being traced.
According to the CM’s daily presser, 80 of the 133 new cases reported on Sunday were from Gulf countries - Kuwait-35, Saudi Arabia-18, UAE-13, Bahrain-5, Oman-5, Qatar-2, Egypt-1 and Djibouti-1.
Forty of the patients returned from other states. Of this, 17 persons returned from neighbouring Tamil Nadu, 16 from Maharashtra, three from Delhi, two each from Gujarat, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, and one from Haryana.
While three patients each from Thrissur and Idukki districts got the infection from confirmed COVID-19 patients, the source of infection in two persons from Palakkad and one from Ernakulam is yet to be traced.