KASARAGOD: She did not waste time in leaving her husband’s house when he arrived from Dubai with symptoms of Covid-19.He too was careful not to get close to her as they were expecting their second child. “I quarantined myself and asked her to go to her house,” said the man who returned from Dubai on March 13. Leave she did, but also took with her a bag he brought from Naif, a hotspot of Covid-19 spread.
Now, 11 members of her family have tested positive for Covid-19, said District Medical Officer Dr A V Ramdas. “We can’t zero in on the exact source of the infection. It could be her because she has also tested positive. But it could be the baggage too,” said Dr Ramdas.
In any case, family members have started becoming sources for infection in the district. “Technically, secondary infection has happened here. But fortunately, all of them are from one family and we were able to put them in isolation wards,” he said.Today, one in every three Covid patients in the district is either a primary contact or a secondary contact, he said.On Wednesday, 12 persons in the district tested positive. Of them, only two came from abroad, both Dubai. The remaining 10 got infected after coming into contact with their NRI relatives.
Of the 10 primary contacts, five women — aged between 18 and 72 years — are from a family in Chemnad panchayat. An 11-year-old boy also tested positive. “All of them may not have come in direct contact with the NRI. There may be cases of one person passing the virus to others in the family,” said a health official.In all, the district has 120 positive cases, of which 41 are contacts. Of the imported cases, 77 are from Dubai, one from the UK and one from Saudi Arabia, said district surveillance officer Dr A T Manoj.Since the primary contacts have started infecting others, the only way to curb the spread is by confining their movement and not transferring the virus to another person, said the DMO.For every positive case, the health officials put a new circle of friends and relatives under quarantine. On Wednesday, 8,971 persons are under quarantine or observation in the district, which is a jump of around 2,500 persons from five days ago.