On Thursday, a Dubai returnee from Edachery in Kozhikode in Kerala who was quarantined by health officials for 28 days (4 weeks) was diagnosed with the Wuhan Coronavirus. His 67-year-old father was earlier admitted to a hospital for age-related ailments. On April 11, the man’s father tested positive for the Chinese virus.
Reportedly, the man’s mother, brother, and child were also diagnosed with the deadly virus. The man who had tested negative in his earlier results and was quarantined for 28 days has now contracted the infection. As such, questions regarding the effectiveness of the swab samples tests are being asked by the medical experts, following the curious case.
District Medical Officer V Jayasree stated that the new case of the Chinese virus had proved that one might contract the deadly pathogen even after being in quarantine for 28 days. She added that a person who had initially tested negative for the Wuhan Coronavirus might also test positive later.
“In the aftermath of the Edachery case, it has been decided to keep all Gulf returnees and other suspected persons under home quarantine for one week in addition as a precautionary step. It’s required to prevent possible community spread,” she was quoted as saying.
Kerala Government relaxes lockdown
Even as the number of coronavirus cases in Kerala is on the ascent, the Communist state government had decided to take the edge off the lockdown norms in the state. Earlier, the Kerala government had released a circular with relaxed norms amidst the 21 days of lockdown ordered by Prime Minister Modi till April 14.
In the relaxation of the existing limiting order which ordained the hotels to provide takeaways and online deliveries till 5 PM, the government had extended the timing of the takeaways and online deliveries till 8 PM. Shops selling essential items, including bakeries and counter supply from take away counters of the hotels, however, continued to stop by 5 PM. The circular permitted the shops to operate the online delivery by 8 PM while it directed the online suppliers to stop their operations by 9 PM every day.
Coronavirus Scare in Kottayam
On March 29, thousands of migrant workers from Bengal, Bihar, and Chhattisgarh had gathered at Kottayam, Kerala, wanting to go back home amidst coronavirus outbreak. As per journalist Padmaja Joshi, the migrant workers there said that they did not eat for 2-3 days.
The migrant workers in Kerala had gathered after they saw buses were arranged for migrant workers by Delhi government in Delhi which let off the migrants at border and left them on their own. Most of these workers then eventually started walking towards their villages, hundreds of kilometers away. Accordingly, the migrant labourers also decided to walk all the way from Kerala to their hometowns in North India.
