THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Keralites testing positive for Covid-19 upon arrival in other states had triggered doubts on the existence of silent transmission in the state. However, a report released by the health department says of the 96 such cases analysed by it, only six persons had possible chances of getting infected while in the state. Another report, which examined the first 22 Covid-19 deaths, says fatigability, breathlessness and fever were the most common symptoms among those who succumbed. The reports were prepared by the health department upon a direction from the chief minister.
“As of June 30, 110 persons had tested positive for the virus outside Kerala. Of them, three were duplicate entry and are excluded from the report. Thus, of the 107, the cases of 96 persons were studied and it is deduced from the field investigation that 90 persons had not contracted the virus in Kerala and six persons might have had a chance of getting infected while in the state,” reads the report titled ‘Keralites tested positive outside Kerala’.
The report also added that the department is further examining the six cases as field teams have been asked to do further back series studies to see whether there were more cases during the same period. Instruction has been given to do more testing in the panchayats from where these six persons went to see whether there is an active infection source in these areas.
As per the data, three of these persons went from Thrissur and all were hospital cases. While one was admitted to Community Health Centre, Alappad, the other two were admitted for surgery at the Irinjalakuda Cooperative Hospital. The three also turned out to be asymptomatic patients. The other three persons went from Kozhikode, Malappuram and Palakkad.
As per the report, there is a high chance that the first test done on the Kozhikode native may be false positive. It has been mentioned that though the swab sample taken at a government hospital in Coimbatore on June 19 tested positive, a repeated test on June 24 showed he was negative. Eventually, the person was discharged on June 26. The Malappuram case is that of a migrant labourer who travelled to Guwahati by train. The Palakkad case is that of a person who travelled along with seven other passengers from Palakkad to Coimbatore by bus and from Coimbatore to Katpadi by train. He was asymptomatic.
However, Dr Anoop Kumar A S, consultant and chief of critical care medicine, Baby Memorial Hospital in Kozhikode, said, “It remains unknown how the possibility of infectivity has been calculated. Also in some cases, the details are not that conclusive.” Rajendra Pilankatta of School of Medicine and Public Health of Central University of Kerala said, “It seems that the calculation period is based on the incubation period of the virus. That means if they had tested positive after 14 days of arrival, then they might have got infected from that state. But if they had tested positive upon arrival or within a week, they might have got the virus from Kerala. But more details on how the calculation was carried out should come.”
Three-fourth of deceased above 50 yrs
The death audit report which analysed 22 Covid deaths in the state stated that 13 persons were in the 60-79 age group. Fourteen persons who died had a travel history and eight had no travel history. While three patients were brought dead, 19 were admitted to various hospitals. “Fatigability, breathlessness, fever, cough and diarrhoea were the early symptoms in these patients. The most prevalent symptoms were fatigability, breathlessness and fever. Also, except for one of the admitted patients, 18 had two or more Covid-related complications. One patient who was a returnee from Abu Dhabi had multiple episodes of severe hematemesis (vomiting of blood) prior to diagnosis of Covid,” says the report.
Over 30 local contact cases for second day
T’Puram: Kerala recorded 193 fresh Covid-19 pateints on Monday, of whom 35 contracted the virus through local contact. This is the second consecutive day that the state is reporting more than 30 cases of local trasmission. Briefing the media, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the spike in contact cases is a serious issue. He also sounded caution regarding the cases in which the source of infection remains unknown. He said the wholehearted support of people is needed in prepar-ation of route map and contact tracing, which are crucial for controlling disease spread. The chief minister said the triple lockdown enforced in Ponnani has turned out to be a success and it has been withdrawn.
Sources unknown
The chief minister said, of the 4,442 cases reported till June 30, the sources of infection of 166 cases could not be detected at the initial stage. But later, the sources of 125 cases were identified. However, the process is still on to identify the source of infection of 41 cases, he said.Of the 193 fresh cases, 92 came from abroad, 65 from other states. Also, the swab samples of 167 patients turned negative on the day.