KASARGOD: Kasaragod MLA NA Nellikkunnu and Manjeshwar MLA MC Kamaruddin are in self-quarantine at home after they came in contact with the person who tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday. The infected NRI, aged 47 years, arrived from Dubai on March 12 at the Calicut International Airport. The health officials, who back-tracked the journey of the patient, said he arrived from Dubai in IX 344 Air India Express flight on March 12. The flight landed at the airport at 8 am.
He took a room in a hotel and stayed back in the city for a day. The next day, on March 13, he took the 4 am Maveli Express to reach Kasaragod. The person travelled in S9 sleeper compartment. After reaching Kasaragod, he did not report to the Health Department for five days. During the time, he attended a football match and a wedding. He met Kasaragod MLA Nellikkunnu at the wedding and shook his hands. On another day, he and his friend waylaid the car of Manjeshwar MLA Kamaruddin, just to shake hands and take a selfie at Eriyal near CPCRI.
The MLA obliged. “I stopped the car because as a politician I cannot ignore the public,” he said. Kamaruddin said he did not get out of the car but immediately after shaking hands, used the hand sanitiser kept in the car. “Since the outbreak of COVID-19, I keep a hand rub in my car and at my house, too. It is a strict instruction from my son who is a doctor,” he said.
He said people should have a conscience and act responsibly. To be sure, the person did not know he was infected at the time and can be held guilty of not following the procedures. Nellikkunnu said those returning from abroad should stop treating this time as a holiday. “We are self quarantining ourselves to send out a message to the public to be responsible and take the situation seriously,” he said.
Kasaragod: A two-year-old child and two women are among the six persons tested positive for coronavirus disease in Kasaragod district on Friday.The three persons are close relatives of a Kalnad native who tested positive on March 16, Monday. He arrived from Dubai with symptoms of Covid-19 on March 14. The fourth person who tested positive is a cousin who picked the infected person from Mangaluru airport. They drove to Kasaragod together in a car.
The women and child have been admitted to Government Medical College, Pariyaram, while the fourth person is in the isolation ward of the General Hospital in Kasaragod.The last two infected persons arrived from the UAE. One of them is a 52-year-old man who flew down to Kozhikode from Sharjah on March 17; the second person, aged 27 years, landed at Mangaluru International Airport from Dubai on the same day.
With six new positive cases, the total number of infected persons has gone up to eight in Kasaragod district. But officials said all the six persons were strictly quarantined at home and there was little chance of them spreading the virus. “We are more worried about the person from Eriyal who tested positive on Thursday. He had a free run and possibly infected an unknown number of persons,” said district police chief P S Sabu. He said the police would strictly implement the restrictions announced by the chief minister in the wake of the high number of positive cases in the district.
‘Kasaragod’s six infected persons were in quarantine’
Officials more worried about the NRI who tested positive on Thursday
He made contact with an unknown number of persons in north Malabar from March 12 to March 19