As the fears of a massive outbreak of COVID-19 in Kottayam – a Red zone, beginning to taper off, the authorities may relax further the restrictions outside the areas marked as containment zones and hotspots in the district.

According to a senior official with the district administration, the district has not witnessed any fresh cases over the past one week since April 27. They are now awaiting a direction from the State government with regard to lifting at least a part of the restrictions imposed view of a sudden spurt in cases.

Strategy

Officials with the District Health Department said the imposition of restrictions coupled with augmented sample testing over the past six days helped them halt the trend after a sudden spurt of cases between April 23 and 27.

As per estimates, the Health authorities collected a whopping 874 swab samples on a random basis over the six days till Sunday and of these, as many as 819 have been tested negative.

Of the 16 positive cases reported during the period, at least 12 patients developed symptoms after the mandatory quarantine period of 28 days, said officials.

“However, the most worrying among these was the case of the headload worker in the Kottayam Town Market. He is believed to have been detected with the virus within a couple of days of infection but his place of work was indeed a vulnerable area. But the random sampling method that had been adopted afterwards ruled out the possibility of cluster formation and community transmission,” said an official.

Survey

Meanwhile, the authorities here on Sunday continued with the survey among the inter-State migrant workers for identifying those interested in returning home.

Official estimates put the total number of inter-State migrant workers in the district at 27,000 and of these over 8,000 persons have shown interest in returning home so far.

According to District Collector P.K. Sudheer Babu, workers residing in areas where the survey is yet to be carried out should contact their respective local body authority through the ward member or the labour contractors.

“Upon being informed, the survey team will reach out to them and collect the details. The workers enrolled for the return journey should remain in their place of stay until receiving the official intimation to this effect,” the Collector said.

The workers can raise their concerns directly with the district administration by dialling the numbers: 0481-2564365, 9497713705.