KOZHIKODE: Though a 40-year-old Kattunayaka tribal woman tested positive for Covid-19 by Monday afternoon — the first case reported in the tribal community in Wayanad — it has not been officially declared by the state health department. At the same time, the district administration clamped containment measures in Thirunelly panchayat from where she hails on Monday evening itself. The woman’s positive result around 12.30pm on Monday, according to Thirunelly panchayat president Mayadevi. But it was not counted among Monday’s cases. It was not included in the department’s evening bulletin on Tuesday also.
The panchayat president is also clueless as to why the case is not being reported. “She along with four others, who worked in a plantation in Virajpet in Karnataka, came without registering on the official Covid19 Jagratha portal. We were told that they came by foot from Virajpet till Baveli and then got an autorickshaw to Kattikulam on June 23. In Kattikulam, they visited a textile shop, a mobile shop and a bakery and came to their colony at Aranappara by evening in a jeep,” Mayadevi told TNIE.
The next day, health officials reached the colony, collected the swab samples of them and shifted them to a quarantine centre of the District Tourism Promotion Council. The other residents of the colony were asked to remain in home quarantine. While the woman tested positive on Monday, two others tested negative and the results of one person is yet to come. The samples of the fifth person are yet to be tested.
Following this, the district adminstration declared wards 4, 5, 9, 10 and 12 of Thirunelly panchayat as containment zones on Monday evening and shut down the Tribal Extension Office as the tribal promoter of the office had visited the colony to shift the five members. All five were shifted to the District Hospital in Mananthavady on Tuesday.
District medical officer clueless on delay
Health department officers had confirmed the case on Monday but waited for official announcement from Thiruvananthapuram. “We don’t know what happened. We haven’t got a response from the capital. The woman is admitted to the District Hospital in Mananthavady and is stable. We have not received any instruction on conducting more tests on her,” said DMO Dr R Renuka.