Malappuram Superintendent of Police, U Abdul Kareem, tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Thursday. The top cop was under quarantine after his gunman tested positive for the virus earlier.
On Thursday, the officer’s COVID-19 results returned positive following which he was admitted to the Manjeri Medical College hospital for observation, a top police source in Malappuram confirmed to TNM.
Reports have also stated that the Malappuram district collector K Gopalakrishnan, district sub collector and assistant collector have also tested positive for the virus. However no official confirmation regarding their tests results have been received, the district information officer told TNM. Further Kerala Director General of Police (DGP) Loknath Behera is currently observing home quarantine after coming in contact with the Malappuram SP, according to reports.
According to reports, Palakkad Superintendent of Police G Siva Vikram IPS too has now gone into home quarantine after being in the contact list of the Malappuram SP. The top cop in Palakkad had visited the Karipur airport for rescue operations where he had reportedly come into contact with Abdul Kareem. His gunman too has now gone into quarantine.
All officials at the SP office in Malappuram are also under observation, reports state. On Thursday, Kerala reports 1564 new cases of the novel coronavirus, taking the total number of active cases in the state to 14,633.
Malappuram recorded 202 fresh cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, taking the total active cases in the district to 1905. Further, two officers from the Kozhikode Meenchanda (fish market) fire station have tested positive for the virus. Twenty six officials in the said fire station are now under observation.
In the Poojappura central jail in Thiruvananthapuram, 116 cases of the virus have been reported. With this, authorities have announced that the jail headquarters will be closed for three days as per the instructions of the health department.
The inmates of the jail were tested after it was found that an aged prisoner was confirmed to have the virus. This was followed by a rapid antigen test of 107 prison inmates on Wednesday out of the 59 inmates tested positive, the Deputy Inspector General of Prisons Santosh had told TNM.
Among those tested positive are remand prisoners as well as those convicted for offences. They are being isolated inside the prison and being treated there, as all 59 who tested positive were asymptomatic cases.