THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Having conducted the SSLC and higher secondary examinations successfully amid the coronavirus threat, the state government has burnt its fingers in the Kerala Engineering Architecture Medical (KEAM) entrance examinations. Three candidates and a parent -- who accompanied another candidate -- have now tested positive for Covid-19 after the examinations were conducted across the state on July 16 despite pleas of postponement from various quarters. Three of the cases were reported from Thiruvananthapuram and the other from Kozhikode.
The cases in the capital district comprise two candidates and the parent, a 47-year-old who accompanied his son to the Government Girls HSS, Cotton Hill. According to a district administration statement, a 19-year-old girl and an 18-year-old boy attended the exam at the Government Teachers Training College, Thycaud, and the Government Girls HSS, Karamana, respectively. The girl -- a resident of Karimpanavilakom, Pozhiyoor -- was a secondary contact of a Covid patient. The boy -- a resident of AKG Nagar, Peroorkada -- was under observation and attended the exam in a room arranged specially for him.
“The big concern is over the girl and the parent,” an officer with the district administration told TNIE.
“The Commissionerate of Entrance Examinations (CEE) has handed over the addresses of the invigilator and 19 students who attended the exam with her.” It is learnt that neither the health department nor the CEE was aware that the girl was a secondary contact. According to the district administration, all 20 students who wrote the exam in that particular hall have been identified and sent under home quarantine, as is the case with invigilators and volunteers. In his briefing, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan sought to downplay the development.
“There was no lack of vigil in the conduct of KEAM. A total of 88,521 aspirants attended the exam. In the capital district, the one who attended the exam at Karamana was in a separate room. In the other case, the girl’s contacts have been traced. In the third case, the parent had come into contact with others. It will be examined. At present, there is no need to panic,” he said.
While the health department is pointing fingers at the CEE for organising KEAM poorly, the commissionerate officials said they had coordinated with the health and the police departments. “No proper screening, restriction and, more importantly, no common sense prevailed in the conduct of the examination,” said a health department officer. The health department said the possibility of cases arising among students, parents, volunteers, invigilators and others who were part of the conduct of the examinations cannot be ruled out. “While it doesn’t mean that the four persons were infected because of KEAM, they could easily have transmitted the virus to others,” said the officer.
Sources said the health department, asked for its opinion, had demanded that KEAM be postponed considering the spike in cases. But the government decided to go ahead with the exam, after a Covid-19 assessment meeting. Though there were suggestions of postponement from within the health department, Health Secretary Rajan Khobragade took the stance that KEAM can be conducted in a manner similar to the SSLC examination. Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta also stated that the higher secondary department had not raised any issue.
A KEAM candidate tests positive in Kozhikode
On Tuesday, a 17-year-old boy from Vadakara who wrote the exam at the Malabar Christian College HSS tested positive on Sunday. He had earlier visited an uncle of his who tested positive. The boy has been shifted to the Covid FLTC on the NIT campus. Fifteen other students and two teachers present in the same exam hall have been placed under home quarantine. The family members and friends with whom he had direct contact are also in quarantine. But the health department officials are yet to trace the other contacts of the boy. Kozhikode District Medical Officer Dr V Jayasree said, “As the boy had plans for a foreign visit in the last week of July, he took the Covid test. The department is making all efforts to prepare the boy’s route map.”