Thiruvananthapuram Mayor K Sreekumar has gone into self-quarantine after seven councillors tested positive for the virus over two days. The mayor took a COVID-19 swab test before going into quarantine.
Meanwhile, the District Collector of Kozhikode K Sambasiva Rao has asked Member of Parliament K Muraleedharan to take a COVID-19 test after he attended a wedding of a doctor from the Kozhikode Beach Hospital, who later tested positive for the virus.
The wedding ceremony was held at the doctor’s residence in Kannur, according to reports. The MP is currently under home quarantine as per the instructions of the district administration.
Thiruvananthapuram has reported 2,929 cases of the novel coronavirus as on Friday. At over 94 percent, the district also has the highest number of infections contracted through community spread.
Meanwhile, 886 people have tested positive for the virus in Kozhikode as on Friday. On Thursday, the Beypore fishing harbour in Kozhikode was closed down after two workers tested positive for the virus. The harbour has been temporarily closed for three days from Thursday. Officials confirmed that a fisherman and a fishing boat driver tested positive for the virus.
Additionally, a total of 120 people who have come into contact with the patients have been asked to go into quarantine.
For the last few weeks, Kerala has been seeing local spread of the infection in fishing hamlets in the state. This means that several people who have already come into contact with infected persons have been infected.
In Thiruvananthapuram, the coastal areas of Poonthura and Pulluvila were reported to have witnessed community transmission, the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
In Ernakulam district also, local transmission was widely reported from the coastal hamlet of Chellanam. In Malappuram’s Ponnani too, the COVID-19 situation was severe after hundreds of cases were reported through local transmission.
Areas under 16 coastal local bodies are presently under triple lockdown to curb local transmission.