Kottayam District Collector M Anjana has gone in quarantine after an employee of the collectorate tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. The source of infection of the Kottayam native has not been identified.
Those who had come into contact with the infected include the collector and additional district magistrate Anil Oommen, an official press release said. Fourteen people who have been identified as the primary contacts of the patient were instructed to go in quarantine. Efforts were on to trace more primary and secondary contacts.
The employee came to the office last on July 18. He was tested on July 21 as he had fever. The collector and others in quarantine will be tested on July 26, the seventh day after they came into contact with the patient.
The collector will work from her official residence in Kottayam from Friday. Her office will resume functioning after being disinfected.
Eighty people tested positive for COVID-19 in Kottayam on Thursday. This is the highest number of cases confirmed in the district in a day.