Of the 21 persons who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the district on Tuesday, nine are primary contacts of those who had tested positive earlier and the source of infection of two persons – a journalist and a headload worker - is unclear. Ten persons who tested positive had returned from outside the State.
A 60-year-old resident of Thoppumpady who came in contact with a 66-year-old COVID-19 positive trader from the area has also tested positive. A total of nine primary contacts of the trader who passed away recently, have tested positive so far.
Two family members of a building contractor from Keezhmad panchayat who tested positive yesterday, have also tested positive.
A 35-year-old worker headload worker at the Old Aluva market has tested positive. He is presumed to have acquired the infection from supply trucks arriving at the market from outside the State, health officials said. Testing would be done among people in the area on Wednesday.
A 38-year-old journalist from Alangad who works in a Malayalam daily, has also tested positive. The source of the infection remains unknown.
A 30-year-old family member of a COVID-19 positive child and an infant who had returned from New Delhi to Piravom recently also tested positive. The children’s parents are reportedly health workers in Delhi.
A 52-year-old relative of a Naval Base staffer from Kadavanthra who had tested positive earlier has also been confirmed positive. Three of the Kadavanthra resident’s primary contacts have tested positive.
A 6-year-old who was the primary contact of the Paravur resident who had tested positive earlier has contracted the disease.
Two family members of a 64-year-old Chellanam native who had tested positive last week have now become COVID-19 patients A 45-year-old auto driver who had ferried the 64-year-old patient to a hospital has also tested positive.
Containment zones
Meanwhile, the authorities have declared five more containment zones in different panchayats in the district. They are: ward 3 of Mulavukad, ward 4 of Keezhmad, ward 7 of Alangad, ward 7 of Choornikkara, and ward 17 of Chellanam panchayats.
Pool testing
“Pool testing” would be intensified in the district, health officials said. The method involves pooling five samples together in a single RT-PCR test to cut costs and the number of RT-PCR kits required. If the test returns negative, all samples would be negative. If a pool test returns positive, individual tests would have to done to confirm which of the samples was positive.
Following ICMR guidelines, the method would be used to test samples of asymptomatic people or random samples from the community. It would not be used to test samples of returnees from outside the State or symptomatic people, officials said. In a situation where a large number of asymptomatic people from an area might have to be tested, the method could be useful, they said.
