The district reported 52 more COVID-19 cases on Sunday with majority contracting the disease through local transmission.
While 30 contracted the disease through contact, the source of infections of two patients is untraced. Two Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel at Nooranad unit, 11 people who came from abroad, and seven from other States also tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
Of the 30 contact cases, 12, including four from Pattanakkad, three from Kuthiathode, two from Panavally and one each from Kodamthuruth, Ezhupunna and Cherthala, were on the contact lists of employees of a seafood factory who were diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier.
Seven Pallithode natives were on the contact lists of COVID-19 patients associated with the Chellanam harbour. Two persons each from Nooranad and Vallikunnam, on the contact list of ITBP personnel who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 earlier, were found to have contracted the disease on Sunday.
Another three patients from Kayamkulam are associated with the Kayamkulam market. Two women hailing from Kayamkulam and Nooranad, on the contact list of traders associated with the Kayamkulam market who tested positive recently, are among the patients. Two men from Pathirappally and Thuravoor, working in Ernakulam, also contracted the disease through contact.
The source of infections of a 55-year-old man from Andhakaranazhi and a 40-year-old man from Mavelikara is unknown.
Meanwhile, a 70-year-old man from Kuttanad, who was given plasma therapy at Government Medical College Hospital, Alappuzha, tested negative for COVID-19. “A cancer patient, he contracted the disease while undergoing palliative treatment a month ago. His condition worsened and we have provided him plasma therapy. The patient’s latest test result came back negative for SARS-CoV-2. His wife also tested positive. Both have now been removed from the COVID-19 patient’s list after being completely cured of the disease,” said an official.
Thirty two people who were undergoing treatment for COVID-19 tested negative for the virus in the district. The number of active COVID-19 cases in the district stands at 627.