THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As the state strengthens its fight against Covid-19, the government has decided to take Palakkad district as a special case for the pandemic control activities. While the health department has decided to fast-track the activities to create separate facilities for treating Covid and non-Covid patients in the district, it has already dispatched a reinforcement team to bolster the prevention and control programmes. The department has assessed that 27 local bodies in the district need special attention.
According to the department, the known and unknown entry points the district shares with Tamil Nadu make it a focal point. On Tuesday itself, the district recorded six positive cases which include one case due to close contact. During the high-level meeting chaired by the chief minister last Thursday, principal secretary (health) Rajan Khobragade asked the government to consider Palakkad as a special case. “We have specific information about unlawful cross-border travel in the district. From both sides (Palakkad and Tamil Nadu), people were crossing, some by foot and some on bicycles.
Hence, the district needs special attention especially since there is widespread transmission in Tamil Nadu and the state is considered to be on the edge of community transmission,” said an officer of the health department. Meanwhile, Palakkad figures among the districts which together contribute 50 per cent of total cases reported in the state. Also it’s among the districts which recorded a large number of cases due to local transmission. The district at present has 43 containment zones.
79 infected, 60 recover in state
The state on Tuesday recorded 79 new cases. Of them, 73 were returnees, five contracted the virus through close contact and one was a healthcare worker. During the day, 60 patients recovered from the illness. The positive cases were from Malappuram (15), Ernakulam (13), Alappuzha, Thrissur and Kannur (seven each), Pathanamthitta and Palakkad (six each), Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam and Kozhikode (four each) and Kasaragod (two).
The contact cases were from Thiruvananthapuram (two) and Malappuram, Kannur and Palakkad (one each). The healthcare worker who got infected is from Pathanamthitta. The recovered persons were from Thiruvananthapuram (14), Palakkad (nine), Kasaragod (eight), Malappuram (seven), Alappuzha and Wayanad (five each), Kottayam (four), Pathanamthitta and Thrissur (three each) and Ernakulam and Kannur (one each). While one place -- Kattakada in Thiruvananthapuram -- was declared a hotspot on Tuesday, 16 places were removed from the list. As of now, there are 110 hotspots in the state.
Vulnerable districts
Districts which together recorded more than 50% of cases: Palakkad, Malappuram, Thrissur, Kasaragod and Kannur
Districts which recorded most cases due to close contact/local transmission: Palakkad, Kannur, Wayanad, Malappuram and Thrissur