Forty-three days after COVID-19 cases were reported in Kozhikode for the first time, the Health Department heaved a sigh of relief on Monday when all the patients undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College Hospital recovered from the infection.

No new SARS-CoV-2 positive cases have been reported for the past 11 days.

According to a release, those recovered were a 31-year-old health worker from Kodenchery, a 23-year-old native of Vadakara, a 23-year-old medical student from Kannur, and a 67-year-old native of Tamil Nadu. The first two COVID-19 cases in the district were reported on March 22. Till April 4, the number of patients in Kozhikode were just seven. It went up to 12 on April 5, when four persons who returned from a Tablighi Jamaat conference at Nizamuddin in Delhi and a Gulf returnee tested positive for the virus. From then on, the number of patients steadily grew.

In the meantime, people from Kannur, Kasaragod and Malappuram districts and a senior citizen from Tamil Nadu too were tested positive here. The Tamil Nadu native had been put up at a temporary shelter for the destitute near the Government Medical College Hospital. So far there have been 23 patients from Kozhikode, three from Kannur, two from Kasaragod, one from Malappuram and one from Tamil Nadu. The patient from Malappuram, a four-month-old girl with congenital heart problems, passed away on April 24.

Meanwhile, there was a gradual rise in the number of people who recovered from the infection as well. The first patient discharged was a native of Kizhakkoth on April 1. The staff of the medical college hospital earned praise after an 84-year-old man from Koothuparamba in Kannur, who had kidney and cardiac problems, recovered from the infection and was discharged on April 25. District Medical Officer V. Jayasree said 1,029 people were under surveillance.