The Covid work in Kerala's Malappuram district took a turn for the worse when District Collector K.Gopalakrishnan, his deputy and 21 other of his staff in the collectorate turned Covid positive on Friday.

This new development comes at a time when the district Police chief Abdul Karim tested Covid positive on Thursday.

Gopalakrishnan on August 7 took active part in the operations following the crash landing of the Air India Express flight from Dubai in a gorge at the Karipur airport in Kozhikode. However he had gone into self isolation after that and he tested positive on Friday.

Malappuram has the second highest number of Covid positive cases -- 1,965 cases, after the state capital district.