KOCHI: Moving swiftly to prevent further spread of Covid-19, the district administration shut a major portion of the Ernakulam Market from Tuesday midnight after two more people working there tested positive. An area stretching from the St Francis CSI Church to the Press Club Road was shut completely. The two men newly confirmed with the infection – a 31-year-old Kasaragod native and a 42-year-old Palakkad native – are colleagues of the driver of Powerlite Electricals who tested positive on Saturday. The district administration has demarcated the area within a 100-metre radius of the electrical shop at Market Junction as a containment zone.
“We have identified and isolated most of the primary contacts of the Covid patients. The process to identify more contacts is on and the list will be prepared within a day,” said a top official with the health department. With the situation worsening, the district administration has directed the health department to conduct rapid tests and to collect samples of workers at the Market.
“The swab samples of 26 people were tested on Tuesday. We are pushing all efforts to bring the situation under control,” District Collector S Suhas said.Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar, who is in charge of Ernakulam district for Covid-related activities, held a video conference with Hibi Eden, MP, DCP Poonguzhali, T J Vinodh, MLA, Sub-Collector Snehil Kumar Singh, Assistant Collector Rahul Krishna and DMO Dr N K Kuttappan in attendance.