Kottayam and Idukki, both Green zones until recently, found themselves back in focus with two districts accounting for all the COVID-19 cases reported on Sunday.
Five more persons, including two women, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in Kottayam, taking the total number of patients in the district to 11, while Idukki reported six cases taking the total number of cases to 20. With the sudden spurt in cases, lockdown measures were tightened in both the districts
According to health officials in Kottayam, a 53-year-old person from Vadayar, who had history of contacts with relatives from abroad, was tested positive for the infection. The second patient is a 32-year-old health worker from Olassa, who had sought treatment for cough.
The two women who have been diagnosed with the viral infection are a 25-year-old postgraduate student from Channanikkad and a 33-year-old health-care worker from Kidangoor who works at a cancer specialty hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. They had appeared for a medical examination after developing cough.
The fifth person to be tested positive during the day was a 56-year-old railway employee who resides at Velloor, near Thalayolaparambu. A native of Tamil Nadu, he had visited Nagercoil on March 20 and returned two days later.
Taking into consideration the sharp rise in the number of cases, the State government has included Manarcad, Aymanam, Thalayolaparambu, and Velloor panchayats in the list of hotspots.
Earlier, Vijayapuram and Panchikkad panachayats and six wards in Kottayam municipality too were listed as hotspots. According to District Collector P.K. Sudheer Babu, the lockdown restrictions in Kottayam have been tightened and all the exemptions have been withdrawn. Restrictions will be imposed on vehicular traffic while offices in areas marked as hotspots would not be allowed to function, he said.
Meanwhile, the authorities here on Sunday recommended home quarantine to 114 persons, taking the total number of people in home quarantine to 650. This also includes the 154 primary contacts of the eleven patients who have been tested positive for the infection since April 23.
As many as 755 samples have been sent for examination from the district so far while an additional batch of 20 samples were sent on Sunday.
In Idukki, the new cases were at Vandanmedu, Uppukandam, Elappara (two), and Vandiperiyar (two).
A 24-year-old youth, who reached Vandanmedu from Malappuram on March 23, was diagnosed positive while the Uppukandam resident (Erattayar grama panchayat) came from Germany via Spain.
A 41-year-old woman doctor at Elappara is believed to have got the infection from the mother of a youth who came from Mysuru and was tested positive earlier. The mother also got infected and had visited the primary health centre at Elappara. Another Elappara resident who got infected was a 51-year-old woman who had contacted the mother of the youth who came from Mysuru and was living near her residence.
With regard to the cases at Vandiperiyar, a 37-year-old man and his seven-year-old daughter had travelled to Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu and is believed to have got it from there.
District Collector H. Dinesan said that all those tested positive on Sunday were shifted to the isolation wards of the Idukki district hospital near Thodupuzha which has been converted to a COVID-19 hospital.
Four COVID-19 cases were reported in the district on April 23.
