The lone COVID-19 patient who has been remaining at the isolation ward of the Pathanamthitta General Hospital since March 24 was once again tested positive for the virus infection on Monday.
According to hospital sources, the man who came from the United Kingdom was first tested positive for COVID-19 on March 25. Though the clinical examination of his throat swab sample was tested negative twice during the past two weeks, he was not declared cured as the results of the successive throat swab examinations were positive to the viral infection, sources said.
No COVID-19 case was reported from any part of the district for the 22nd consecutive day on Monday. According to an official medical bulletin released here in the evening, a total of six persons remain at the isolation wards set up at various hospitals in the district as on Monday.
District Medical Officer A.L.Sheeja said three persons, one of them a COVID-19 patient, were at the Pathanamthitta General Hospital, one at the District Hospital in Kozhencherry, and two others, with symptomatic fever, at the General Hospital in Adoor.
So far, a total of 181 persons, who included 16 persons cured of COVID-19, have got discharged from the isolation wards of various hospitals in the district. The DMO said a total of 4,212 throat swab samples have been sent from the district to the virology laboratory in Alappuzha for clinical examination and only 17 of them tested positive for the virus infection so far. The department awaits test results of 177 throat swab samples, she said.