Lockdown measures at New Mahe, Chokli and Pannyannur panchayats have been beefed up after it came to light that a 71-year-old COVID-19 positive patient from Cherukallayi, New Mahe, had attended religious and marriage functions in and around the locality.
The order regarding the stepping up of lockdown measures was issued by the Thalassery sub-collector and sub-divisional magistrate, Asif K Yusuf, on Wednesday.
The order has been issued based on the Kerala Epidemics Diseases (COVID-19) Regulations 2020 based on contact tracing investigations carried out by the health and police department. The officials found that the person had travelled freely in these localities between March 15 and 21, taking part in a religious function at MM Highschool Mosque, as per a report in TNIE.
To attend an engagement on March 18, the man had travelled with his son-in-law on a two-wheeler to the Mahe bridge, from where he boarded a tempo traveller with 11 persons. An estimated 45 persons took part in the function.
The 71-year-old, a chronic kidney patient, is presently in a critical condition and on ventilator support. He is admitted at Government Medical College hospital, Pariyaram and according to the doctors has pneumonia, heart ailments and ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome).
Kerala, on Wednesday, recorded nine more COVID-19 positive cases taking the total number of cases in the state to 345.
Over 1.4 lakh people are under observation across the state, and 749 of them are at hospitals and rest at in-home quarantine. Testing has also been increased in the state with the arrival of additional testing kits – 20,000 kits are expected from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Thursday, CM Pinarayi Vijayan had said on Wednesday. There so far has been 11,986 tests that were carried out, of which 10,906 sampled tested negative.