KASARAGOD: The chain of events leading to a Class X girl testing positive for the novel coronavirus in Kasaragod has exposed epic gaps in testing and isolation parameters. Despite voluntarily coming forward for testing, it required three visits to the District Hospital for her Dubai-returnee father’s swab to be taken.
In the intervening period, the girl had two of her Class X exams.
Her class had planned a farewell party on March 19, the day of the last examination, but aborted it because of the Covid scare. But on March 18 and 19, she interacted with six of her close friends, said her class teacher Sadanandan T.
“I have collected their contact details and passed it on to the Covid centre,” he said.On March 20, sensing an outbreak in Naif -- a locality in the Deira side of Dubai -- collector D Sajith Babu put out an order asking all those who returned from Naif to immediately report at their nearest primary health centre (PHC) or community health centre (CHC). So her parents went to the District Hospital, after the authorities had twice sent them back citing lack of symptoms.
“This time too they were inclined to send us back,” the wife told TNIE.,“But when we told the doctors that the General Hospital in Kasaragod was collecting swabs of all those who returned from Naif, they relented.” In these three days, she had to deal with the man’s rising anxiety and blood pressure. “He was hit by anxiety because the doctors were not testing him,” she said.
After three days, on March 23, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced that 19 persons from Kasaragod tested positive for Covid. The father of the Class X girl was one of them. That was the highest single-day confirmation in Kasaragod, till March 27, when 34 persons confirmed positive. In all, the district now has 81 positive cases. Around 9 pm on March 23, the district administration sent in four ambulances to pick the family members. The father was moved to the General Hospital in Kanhangad. His wife and four children -- two sons, aged 20 and five, and two daughters, aged 12 and 15 -- were taken to the District Hospital.
The family kept insisting on taking swabs and around midnight, the children’s swabs were taken. The family was shifted to the isolation facility in SurgiCare, a hospital in Kanhangad. But the district administration is yet to take the swab of the mother. On March 28, the Class X girl tested positive. The district administration shifted them to the District Hospital. An arduous task ahead The girl’s friends are a worried lot. “Today morning, I got a call from the mother of my daughter’s best friend. We are neighbours. She sounded worried,” said her mother. The girl’s teacher Sadanandan said he has identified her six friends. “But in an examination hall, there are 20 students and these six girls sat in six different halls, and they might have come in touch with several other students,” he said. “All the teachers will have to put their brains together to find out the last person in this network.”
Another possible carrier is the girl’s 20-year-old brother. He is a Class XII student of a government school in Chittari. “He wrote one examination after his father returned from Naif. And he used to mingle a lot with his friends,” said his mother. She said her cousin returned from Naif on March 17, a day after her husband returned. “He was already sick in Naif and my husband was taking care of him there,” she said. But when he returned, the doctors did not take his swab. “His swab was taken only after my husband tested positive. They should have taken my husband away as soon as he reached Kanhangad or from the airport. They should not have sent him home,” the woman said.