KOCHI: Mayor Soumini Jain and her fellow councillors of the Kochi Corporation went into seven-day quarantine on Tuesday after Edakochi North Councillor K J Basil tested positive for Covid-19. Corporation officials who were in contact with the councillors too have gone into quarantine.
The development was the result of an unfortunate turn of events. Basil, who was under quarantine after having come in contact with a Covid patient, visited the corporation and its Palluruthy zonal office after a health official erroneously declared that his Covid test result was negative.
“An elderly person had visited my office on August 5. He tested positive on August 11. Since I was among his primary contacts, I went into quarantine. I took the RT-PCR test on August 15 and when I asked about the result, the health official declared it as negative. So, I visited the mayor and other offices. Only after the control room told me about the result did I come to know that I had tested positive. Had the official clarified this on Monday, I would have had zero contacts,” Basil said. Soumini said the civic body’s functioning will remain unaffected, except for a few hours on Wednesday.