THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM’s three-day district conference that concluded at Parassala on Sunday turned out to be a super spreader as at least 100 delegates who had attended the event tested positive for Covid. Among the infected are Minister V Sivankutty, MLAs I B Satheesh, G Stephan and Kadakampally Surendran.
It is learnt that a former minister, an area secretary and a few local committee secretaries are also infected. Among the infected are red volunteers and SFI workers who had offered service at the venue. The cases are likely to shoot up in the next couple of days as more people are suspected to have symptoms.
The CPM meet is one of the 35 clusters identified in the capital district in the last four days and the sudden surge in cases has been attributed to these clusters. Covid clusters were identified in schools, colleges, offices and police stations. It may be recalled that Parassala police have already registered a case against conference organisers for conducting a ‘Mega Thiruvathira performance’ with the participation of over 500 women.
Despite the setback in Thiruvananthapuram, the party is going ahead with remaining district conferences. Plans are afoot to conduct the conferences in Thrissur, Kasaragod and Alappuzha in the coming days. Opposition leader V D Satheesan said with decision to go ahead with conferences, the CPM has proved who the real merchants of death are. “We have postponed even our protest programmes considering the gravity of the situation,” he said.
Capital district reports highest TPR at 48%
On Tuesday, the capital district reported 6,911 new positive cases while the number of active patients crossed 36,000. The test positivity rate was 48% as 14,458 tests were conducted. The TPR is much higher than the corresponding state figure of 35%.
The death of a nurse who was affected with Covid was also reported in the day. Saritha, who was working with government hospital, Varkala and was on special duty at CFLTC, Kallara, was detected with Covid on Monday and died on Tuesday.
The classes from 5 to 9 of Government Cotton Hill Girls Higher Secondary School in Vazhuthacaud were closed after three teachers and 20 students tested positive. Offline classes have been suspended in Mar Ivanios, All Saints and MG colleges in the district. The dental and ENT sections of General Hospital were also shut temporarily as more doctors and other health care staff were found infected.
The functions of the Public Office and Secretariat were partly affected due to the spread of infection. A few of the staff in the chief minister’s of fice are also infected. The employees organisations have urged the government to introduce work from home option for all employees below the rank of under secretary.
Ministers Antony Raju and G R Anil reviewed the Covid situation at a meeting chaired by district collector Navjot Khosa. The meeting directed the police to enforce crowd control measures in the wake of rising Covid spread. The participation of people attending funeral and marriage functions shall be strictly monitored after it was found that more people were attending them.