The drunken ruckus of a youngster in violation of home quarantine protocol on his immediate arrival from Thane in Maharashtra last week has send a host of people from at least three police station limits, including a sub inspector, into quarantine after he was tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday.
The 29-year-old set off a chain of events on June 22 evening shortly after his arrival by train and sent home with quarantine advisory. On reaching home, he found his rented home at Pattalam in Fort Kochi closed and he also allegedly had a run-in with the house owner, who has also been sent into quarantine now.
He then withdrew money from a branch of Canara Bank in Fort Kochi, had a haircut from a barber shop at Mattancherry followed by a shower in a public toilet across Dutch Palace in Mattancherry. Both the facilities now remain closed so as the shop from where he bought a soap.
“We have sent the barber and the first customer to use the facility into quarantine while the immediate successive customers are being tracked down,” said Mattancherry police sources. The staff at Canara Bank have also been quarantined.
The youngster is then learnt to have summoned an autorickshaw driver, his acquaintance from Palluruthy and bought liquor from an outlet in Thoppumpady. They then consumed it inside the autorickshaw. The driver is now in quarantine.
The man then reportedly returned to Pattalam area and created a ruckus following which public alerted Fort Kochi police. “We received the call around 9 pm and when we reached there he was in an intoxicated state and in no mood to co-operate. So, I had to overpower him,” said the sub inspector who immediately went into quarantine after the incident. A driver and two other police personnel have also been seni into quarantine after the man tested positive though they had no direct contact with him.
There was some delay in the arrival of the ambulance and the youngster was put in an institutional quarantine at Eda Kochi around 11.30 pm. Police registered a case against him invoking the Kerala Epidemic Diseases Ordinance.
The swab test of the sub inspector has not yet been held as he is yet to show symptoms of the pandemic.
