IDUKKI: A day after the Health Department raised concerns about the number of contacts of a bakery owner who tested Covid positive at Karunapuram in Idukki district, the authorities traced around 300 people who had interacted with him. Though the final list is not yet ready, the health authorities said only around 300 people had come into contact with the patient who was admitted to the isolation ward of the District Hospital in Thodupuzha.
“The chances of community spread are less as the patient did not travel much. He had visited Kattappana once and the other contacts are people who visited the shop. The list of people who visited the bakery has been prepared and they have been advised home quarantine,” said District Collector H Dineshan.
The 39-year-old patient, who runs a bakery at Puttady, was tested Covid positive on Thursday during a sentinel surveillance test of 10 people in the area belonging to high-risk category and probability of contact with interstate truck drivers. Earlier, another resident of Puttady had tested Covid positive, but he has no contact history with the patient.
The contact list of the bakery owner was prepared by health officials at the Government Community Health Centre in Puttady on Saturday. Idukki DMO N Priya said the contact list was prepared by identifying people who visited the bakery and spent more than five minutes there. All the identified people in the contact list are asymptomatic. “We will be monitoring the health of the contacts and if anyone shows symptoms of Covid, he will be shifted to the isolation facility and the samples will be sent for testing,” she said.
The DMO said the patient was asymptomatic. His family members, wife and children have also been quarantined at home. As per the flow chart of the patient, he had stayed at home from March 23 to May 3 and had only visited a ration shop and a grocery shop during the period. On May 3, he went to Puttady to clean the shop. He travelled in his own autorickshaw and spent less than an hour at the shop. From May 4 to 10, he had been running the shop from 7.30 am to 5 pm. He used to commute to the shop in his own autorickshaw. On May 11, he travelled to Kattappana for swab collection at 10.30 am and visited two shops and a petrol bunk at Pulianmala. He was present at the shop on May 12 and May 14 after which he was shifted to hospital.