After a brief interval of six days, Kottayam on Tuesday reported a fresh case of COVID-19 with a two-year-old child testing positive for the disease.
According to Health officials, the child along with his mother came to Kottayam on May 9 and was under home quarantine at their residence in Uzhavoor. The test results of the serum samples collected from the woman are yet to be received.
“Both the child and its mother, who remain stable, have been shifted to the special isolation ward at the Government Medical College, Kottayam. The woman is yet to develop any symptoms of the disease,” said an official.
As many as 19 persons from the district had travelled along with the mother and the child on board the same flight that landed from Kuwait. Of these, nine were sent to the institutional quarantine centres while the remaining 12 passengers, including the kid and its mother, were permitted to remain in home quarantine. A Malappuram native who had travelled by the same flight tested positive for the virus earlier.
As many as 1,687 of the 2,753 persons who were issued passes to return to Kottayam from other States reached the district by Tuesday afternoon. The total number of people returning from overseas destinations till Monday evening stood at 178.
Meanwhile, uncertainty prevails over the return of migrant labourers camping across the district allegedly due to non-cooperation from the destination states. Even though the district administration had completed the proceedings to send back nearly 21,000 migrant workers from various States around a week ago, none of them could go home till date in the absence of a Shramik service from Kottayam.
“Several states like West Bengal and Bihar are not responding to the State’s communication in this regard. Hence, we are not in a position to send them back at this point of time,” explained a senior official with the district administration.
