With Wayanad district witnessing a spike in people contracting COVID-19 through local contact transmission, the district administration has made the regulations in COVID-19 containment zones more stringent. District Collector Dr Adeela Abdulla on Saturday issued a new order in which the time allotted for functioning of essential services in containment zones has been further curtailed.
As per the order, post offices in these regions can only function from 10 am to 12 pm, banks will only be open from 10 am to 2 pm.
Petrol bunks in the containment zones should also only function from 10 am to 2 pm. If there are more than one petrol bunks in a containment zone, each one should be opened on alternate days, the order states.
Wayanad district has the highest number of containment zones in Kerala. Under the district’s eight Local Self Government Departments (LSGDs), 109 wards and two tribal colonies have been declared as containment zones.
Of this, the entire area of four local bodies - Edavaka gram panchayat, Mananthavady municipality, Thirunelly gram panchayat and Vellamunda gram panchayat - are containment zones. Mangot colony in Ambalavayal and Thachambath colony in Meenangadi are the tribal colonies which have been marked as containment zones.
The District Collector has stated that those violating the regulations will face stringent action.
Talking to TNM, District Medical Officer (DMO) Dr R Renuka said that the regulations were made more stringent as the district witnessed a spike in people being infected through contact transmission. “Most of the cases that Wayanad witnessed in recent days are due to contact transmission,” said Dr Renuka.
On Friday Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had also mentioned during his daily press briefing that Wayanad requires to exercise special caution.
Till the end of April, Wayanad was a district that had reported very few cases. Till then, only three people - all of whom returned from abroad - tested positive for the disease in the district.
But since May first week, of the 18 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Wayanad, 14 contracted the disease through contact transmission. Rest four patients had a history of travelling outside Kerala. In addition to this, two police officers, contracted the disease through contact transmission.
As per the data from Directorate of Health Services till Saturday, 17 people are under treatment for COVID-19 in Wayanad.
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