THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Attingal municipality office was temporarily shut down after a staffer tested positive for Covid. The revenue department clerk had tested positive after undergoing test in Valiyakunnu taluk hospital. The Kallambalam native was attending work till Wednesday. At first the decision was to shut down only the revenue department. However, later with the possibility of a larger spread across the office, the civic body decided to shut down the office for three days. The office will reopen on Monday after the disinfection team cleans the office premises.
After a high number of cases in the past week, the number of fresh Covid cases in the district has gone down on Thursday with only 467 new cases with less number of tests held on Wednesday. Among these, 349 cases were infections through local transmission. Worryingly even with less number of fresh cases, the number of cases with no known source of infection maintained an increasing trend with 98 such cases. Meanwhile nine deaths were also confirmed in the district on the day. The day also saw one of the highest recovery rates reported here with 1529 recoveries.
The deceased are Peeru Muhammad (60) from Pachalloor, Vijayakumaran Nair (62) from Thiruvananthapuram, Raju (45) from Vallam, Sreekumari (58) from Plavilakonam, Mohanan (51) from Mariyapuram, Rajesh (36) from Vizhinjam, Vijayan (58) from Santhivila, Rajendran (68) from Nalandanada and Savithri (60) from Palayam. The district has 11800 active cases. Among those who tested positive on the day, 135 were over the age of 60 while 47 were below 15 years. As many as 3337 people are newly under Covid observation in the district. In total as many as 11800 people are currently under observation.
24 police officers test positive in four days
T’Puram: With four new cases, a total of 24 police officers tested positive for Covid at the Museum station in the past four days. The remaining officers will undergo Covid test at SAP camp on Friday. The station has over 60 officers. The remaining staff here will be sent to quarantine after the test, and the station will be cleaned. A new team will take charge at the station by Saturday. Earlier, the delay in sending the officers who are primary contacts into quarantine had sparked controversy.
12 staff of Padmanabha temple infected
T’Puram: Around twelve staff, including the nambis of Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple were tested positive for Covid-19. Entry for devotees has been banned at the shrine for 15 days, starting Friday. Over hundred staff members of the temple were subjected to test on Wednesday. Since the nambis have been infected, the temple thantri will perform their duties. The annual festival previously scheduled to begin on October 16 has also been postponed.