Two KEAM candidates, parent test positive

Parents and students had crowed the entrance exam venues violating COVID norms

The diagnosis of COVID-19 in two candidates who appeared for the KEAM 2020 entrance test here on July 16 and the parent of another candidate has triggered panic in the State capital. They tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on Monday evening.

The infected candidates, who hail from Karimpanavilakom at Pozhiyoor and AKG Nagar in Peroorkada, appeared for the entrance examination at the Government College of Teacher Education in Thycaud and Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Karamana respectively.

The Pozhiyoor native is a secondary contact of a COVID-19 patient but was permitted to take the test in a general hall after exhibiting no symptoms on being screened. All 20 students who wrote the test in the same hall have been identified and directed to go into quarantine. The Peroorkada native appeared for the test in an isolation room after being found to be symptomatic. An invigilator and two volunteers who were present there have also been sent into quarantine. Official sources do not dismiss the possibility of the candidates having come in close proximity with students outside the venues.

The third case is a 47-year-old Manacaud native who accompanied his son to the Government Higher Secondary School for Girls, Cotton Hill. He apparently remained on the school premises for over seven hours. The District Collector has advised all parents who stayed back during the exam hours on the premises to self-monitor for symptoms and contact the local primary health centres or the Collectorate control room (1077) if they develop any symptoms.

The conduct of the entrance exam had come under scrutiny after many centres witnessed heavy crowding of students and parents, who gathered outside the venues before and after the exam notwithstanding the triple lockdown in place in the city.

Assurances of adequate deployment of police officers and volunteers of the Samoohika Sannadha Sena to prevent gatherings had also turned futile. The choice of the Government College of Teacher Education in Thycaud as an axam centre was questioned by a section of teachers. Along with that centre, the Government Arts College and the Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School, located close to one another, accommodated 1,200 students.

Incidentally, the City police registered cases against 600 identifiable people who violated the COVID-19 protocol and crowded outside the St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School, Pattom, and the Cotton Hill school under the Kerala Epidemic Diseases Ordinance, 2020.