A total of 299 persons tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the district on Monday.
Thirteen health workers have tested positive – two staff members at the Ernakulam General Hospital, one at the first-line treatment centre at Mattancherry and another worker at the Muvattupzha General Hospital, five health workers at private hospitals, two workers from the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital who are natives of Ernakulam, and a Mattancherry native who was working at a hospital in Karakonam.
Other positive cases of the infection were reported from areas including Kothamangalam, Muvattupuzha, Mulavukad, Fort Kochi, Mattancherry, Vyttila, Thrikkakara, Vengola, Perumbavoor, Aluva, Edathala, Eloor, Kadungalloor, and Kalamassery.
Nine persons who had arrived from outside the State have tested positive, while 290 persons acquired the infection through local contact.
A total of 297 persons tested negative for the disease, and 3,824 patients are being treated for it. For testing, 989 samples were sent from government facilities and 2,023 samples were private ones.
After the Station House Officer (SHO) at the Palarivattom police station tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 late on Sunday, 26 police officers at the station who were on his contact list have gone into quarantine. Since the staff had nearly been halved now, operations have been affected, but the station continues to function with the remaining 27 officers, after a round of disinfection, said an officer at the station. The source of infection of the SHO was still uncertain, he said.
45 employees infected
About 45 staff members of a jewellery shop in the city, who were staying together in a building in Ayyappankavu, tested positive for the disease on Sunday, according to Deepak Joy, councillor representing the area. Eight of them had tested positive first, after which all of them were tested for the virus, he said. Most of them had not been moved out of the building yet, since a decision on whether the building itself would be turned into a first-line treatment centre for their care was yet to be made.