As many as 50 people, including a health worker and five persons from abroad, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in Kottayam on Friday. At the same time, 74 persons who recovered from the disease were discharged from hospitals.
Of the new cases, 42 contracted the infection through local transmission. Officials said the contact sources of five patients were yet to be ascertained.
However, there was no let up in case burden in the COVID clusters at Changanassery, Chingavanom, Parathodu, and Vaikom, with more people contracting the infection.
Three more persons linked to the Changanassery market, five from Vaikom, nine in Chingavanom, and 12 in Parathodu clusters tested positive on Friday. Apart from the widening of the clusters, a new threat has emerged with doctors, health staff, public servants, and KSRTC employees contracting the infection.
Two resident doctors at the Government Medical College Hospital, Kottayam, a doctor at a government hospital at Vaikom, a driver at the KSRTC’s Kottayam depot, a police personnel, an employee at the district Collectorate, as many as 10 health workers, and a few employees at village and grama panchayat offices were among those tested positive in the past few days.
, A 27 year-old staff nurse at the District Hospital, Kottayam, was confirmed with the infection, taking the total number of health workers testing positive for the infection to 18.