COVID-19: ‘In-house’ contacts a new cause for concern in Kozhikode

Health Department officials say this had resulted in many local bodies registering a high daily test positivity rate

The officials claimed that many people were reluctant to shift to the domiciliary care centres, temporary facilities set up by local bodies.

‘In-house contacts’, or asymptomatic infected persons under home isolation spreading COVID-19 to their family members, have become a source of concern in Kozhikode district of Kerala.

Health Department officials said that this had resulted in many local bodies registering a high daily test positivity rate (TPR), the number of people testing positive for the virus per 100 samples. According to them, Olavanna grama panchayat in Kozhikode registered a TPR of 45%, Thooneri 44%, Kottur 38% and Chelannur 37% on Monday. Ramanattukara Municipality recorded a TPR of 37% on the same day.

Domiciliary care centres

The officials claimed that many people were reluctant to shift to the domiciliary care centres, temporary facilities set up by local bodies. A total of 23 local bodies in the district have their daily TPR hovering above 30%.

District Collector S. Samasiva Rao has said that restrictions on public life would be intensified in these places. They would be relaxed only after the TPR dips. However, grama panchayats such as Ayanchery, Changaroth, Kayanna, Thurayur, and Arikkulam are registering a TPR between 17% and 21%.

Meanwhile, the officials said that the overall scenario was changing for the good in Kozhikode district, going by the drop in weekly TPR. If a TPR of 28.7% was recorded in the week ending May 9, it came down to 25.5% in subsequent week.

There had been a decline in the number of fresh cases here as well, with 2,966 people newly testing positive for the virus on May 15, 2,406 on May 16, and 1,496 on May 17. The daily TPR dropped from 20.06% on Sunday to 17.61% on Monday. Kozhikode district began to feel the pinch of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic by March-end.