THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Covid-19 situation in Pathanamthitta and Palakkad is grim with cases of infection through local contact going up.“At Kumbazha in Pathanamthitta, the contact list of people who were infected from the fish market is getting longer which is worrying. So is the case with Palakkad where a person associated with the Pattambi fish market transmitted the virus to over 100 people,” Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.
The state on Tuesday recorded 720 new cases of Covid-19 cases, of which 528 were infected locally, 82 came from abroad and 54 returned from other states. Of the 528 local transmission cases, sources of infection of 34 are unknown. As many as 17 health workers, 29 Defence Service Corps personnel, four ITBP personnel, four employees of Kerala Solvent Extraction Ltd (Thrissur) and one private company employee are among the newly-infected persons.
In Kannur, a special squad has been set up to ensure people strictly follow home quarantine guidelines. It has also been decided to set up plasma banks in all medical college hospitals in the state. Thiruvananthapuram reported the highest number of Covid cases at 151, followed by Kollam (85), Ernakulam (80), Malappuram (61), Kannur (57), Alappuzha and Palakkad (46), Pathanamthitta and Kasaragod (40 each), Kottayam and Kozhikode (39 each), Thrissur (19) and Wayanad (17).
Thiruvananthapuram also had the highest number of local transmission cases at 144, followed by Kollam (79), Ernakulam (72), Palakkad and Kasaragod (36 each), Kottayam (35), Kozhikode (33), Alappuzha (30), Malappuram (29), Pathanamthitta (21), Wayanad (6), Kannur (5)and Thrissur (2). As many as 274 people recovered. They were from Alappuzha (70), Malappuram (51), Kozhikode (39), Palakkad (34), Wayanad (14), Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam (11 each), Kottayam and Kannur (10 each), Ernakulam (7), Thrissur and Kasaragod (6 each) and five from Idukki.