Offering some respite, the district on Monday logged 30 COVID-19 positive cases and registered 150 recoveries, latter a record for one day.
The fresh cases included 20 patients who contracted the disease through local transmission, a health employee, seven who had come from other States, and two from abroad.
Among the contact cases, three men and a woman from Kadakarappally were on the contact list of COVID-19 patients linked to Chellanam harbour. Besides, 11 more people who were found to have contracted the disease hailed from Kadakkarappally. Rest of the contact cases were from Alappuzha, Cherthala, Arattupuzha, Muhamma and Kainady. The health staff who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 was also a native of Kadakarappally.
Of the 150 people cured of COVID-19, 38 were Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel at Nooranad unit. Sixty eight people who contracted the disease through contact, 26 who tested positive after returning from abroad, 16 who came from other States, and two health workers also made a full recovery.
The district so far reported 1,513 COVID-19 cases, 822 people recovered while four persons succumbed to the disease. The number of active COVID-19 cases in the district now stands at 687. Although four persons were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 posthumously in the district on Sunday and Monday, the fatalities are yet not included in the list of COVID-19 deaths in the State as of Monday evening.
Even as the number of cases being reported in the district slowed down in the last two days, authorities urged the public to maintain utmost caution. District Collector A. Alexander directed all six municipalities in the district to prepare a standard operating procedure for the functioning of markets in their limits. Steps were also been taken to set up more COVID-19 First-Line Treatment Centres in the municipalities.
Nod for test
The Government Medical College Hospital (MCH), Alappuzha, received nod from the Indian Council of Medical Research for conducting Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test.