THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With three COVID-19 cases confirmed in the city, the district administration has called for a total shut down in the city. A total of 18 people are in the isolation wards of the hospitals in the district. A total of 231 people are now home quarantined, making the total number of people under observation 249.
70 people are to be tested in the district despite the testing centres working round the clock. The six-hour time needed for the test is one factor in this.
District Collector K Gopalakrishnan addressing the media here on Saturday said that among the 69 people who came in the flight with the UK returnee in the city, 30 are high-risk contacts along with the seven members of his family residing in Pettah.
"Among the people who have arrived in the flight with the confirmed cases, some are from other districts and Tamil Nadu. We are in touch with the respective medical officers with the information," said the collector.
"We are still trying to figure out the route map of the Italian citizen who stayed in Varkala for two weeks. The language is an issue but we will have an idea soon.
We are now taking tests in ten different centres including the district taluk hospital in Neyyattinkara, Ndumangad, Peroorkada and Fort. The load on hospitals are huge and if people start rushing in because of panic, it might delay the affected person from getting sufficient care," he added.