The number of fresh COVID-19 cases in Kottayam continued to rise sharply with 474 persons testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 on Sunday.
Of this, 470 persons including four health care workers contracted the virus through local transmission. Kottayam municipality led the tally with 46 cases while Vazhappally panchayat followed closely with 43 cases. High number of cases were also reported from Erattupetta-35, Parathodu-22, Erumely-21 and Arppookkara-19.
With 320 recoveries during the day, the district currently has 4,979 active cases.
Meanwhile, District Collector M. Anjana has issued an order entrusting the heads of various departments as sector and monitoring officers for the COVID-19 prevention activities at the local body level. The order, invoking provisions of the Disaster Management Act, takes a cue from the government order that the service of officials from departments other than Health, Revenue, police and local government could be utilised for COVID-19 prevention activities.
In the first phase, as many as 94 gazetted rank officers have been deployed, who will work on behalf of the District Disaster Management Authority and report directly to the District Collector. The order stipulates these officials to focus on COVID-19 prevention protocol and will have the power to take strict action against violations and to register cases with the help of the police.
The work of sector officers at the taluk level will be coordinated by the officers in charge of the taluk incident system.