The Health Department will organise a mega COVID-19 testing drive in the district on Friday and Saturday. Health officials said that 14,000 tests would be done each day.
All government and private hospitals in the district will have facilities to conduct COVID-19 tests on Friday and Saturday.
Testing is a vital step in preventing the spread of COVID-19. As people can be infected without showing any symptoms, the spread of COVID-19 becomes easy and uncontrollable.
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Health officials warned here on Thursday that the second wave of the pandemic could be faster and more dangerous than the first one.
“Patients can be more serious, and there can be more deaths,” said District Medical Officer (DMO) K. Sakeena.
She said detecting the disease would be more important, especially as it could prevent the disease from worsening. Isolating the infected can prevent the spread of the disease, she said.
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Those testing positive for COVID-19 without showing any symptoms and those showing minor symptoms would be quarantined at their homes. Dr. Sakeena requested all those having COVID-19 symptoms, those who interacted with COVID-19 patients, those who interacted with the public, auto, cab, and bus drivers, collection agents, shopkeepers, trauma care volunteers, police personnel, those above 45 years of age who are not yet vaccinated, those who had election duty, all patients seeking treatment in hospitals and their bystanders to undergo the testing on Friday and Saturday.
District Collector K. Gopalakrishnan said here that all those seeking treatment for any disease in hospitals should test for COVID-19.
744 new cases
Meanwhile, 744 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Malappuram district on Thursday, raising the number of infected cases currently under treatment to 4,562.
When 693 of those tested positive on Thursday were infected through direct contact with COVID-19 patients, the source of infection could not be identified in 27 cases. As many as 23 persons who returned from other States too confirmed positive.
Dr. Sakeena said that 623 infected persons had succumbed to the disease since March 2020 in the district. However, the number of those who recovered from COVID-19 in Malappuram was 1.24 lakh.
While 21,090 people were isolated in the district, 4,562 were under treatment. While 197 of them were in special COVID-19 hospitals, 127 were in first line treatment centres and 101 in second line treatment
centres.
Health officials reiterated that people should maintain physical distancing and wear mask whenever they go out. For any information or help, the district control cell can be contacted on 0483- 2737858,
2737857, 2733251 or 2733252.