SABARIMALA: The health department has made Covid tests mandatory for all those who stay at Sannidhanam for over 14 days. The new directive was issued following the detection of Covid-19 cases at Sannidhanam in recent days.
According to a source, at least two dozen people — including six police personnel, devaswom employees and revenue officials — were confirmed with the virus over the past few days. In the latest incident, four Sabarimala Sanitation Society (SSS) volunteers tested positive over the past 24 hours, the source said. They were part of 100 SSS volunteers who were subjected to rapid antigen tests at the government hospital at Pampa on Monday.
Confirming the development, Rajendra Prasad, devaswom executive officer at Sabarimala, said a list comprising 824 devaswom staff — including those on duty, devaswom employees on deputation, temporary staff and employees on daily wages — was submitted for Covid tests. As only 100 samples a day can be tested at Pampa, the health authorities will have to send the staff either to the Covid testing centre at Nilakkal or send them in batches of 100-a-day to Pampa, he said.
1,000 more pilgrims allowed in Sabarimala
T’Puram: The government has allowed 1,000 more pilgrims to perform darshan at Sabarimala. Daily limit on weekdays has been doubled to 2,000. On Saturdays and Sundays, 3,000 devotees are allowed entry. Online booking for darshan will start from Wednesday. Only online booking will be allowed this time, said the Devaswom minister.
Considerable increase in doubling time
T’Puram: The state on Tuesday recorded more recoveries than fresh cases. The day recorded 6,151 cured cases and 5,375 new cases. In another development, the doubling time of the virus has increased in the state to 77 days. It was 69 days during the week from November 15 to 21. Of the new cases, 4,596 were contact cases, 617 were cases with unknown sources of infection, 114 were returnees and 48 were health workers. The test positivity rate stands at 9.14 per cent and the samples processed were 58,809.