Health Minister K K Shailaja has once again ruled out community transmission for now but the source of infection of at least five of the 11 people who were declared positive in Kottayam and Idukki on April 26 remains a mystery.
The infection's trail could be traced back to its origin in the case of only six, two in Kottayam and four in Idukki. The Kottayam positives who have what looks like plausible sources are a male nurse who worked in the Kottayam general hospital, and a railway employee who had returned from Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, on March 25.
The male nurse was in a COVID Care Centre, so he would have been infected by any of the patients. The Tamil Nadu link makes it convenient to claim the railway employee had brought the virus from outside, but what could upset the assumption is the delayed symptoms: the man showed symptoms only 34 days after his return and was tested positive on the 36th.
As for the remaining three positives in Kottayam, the district administration is struggling to come up with some inspired guess work. This includes a nurse who works in Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, who had been on leave for over a month. She had taken leave even before a Spain-returned doctor working in Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences, which shares a campus with the RCC, was declared positive. She had kept to her home and had not ventured outside. No one in her family, and in her neighbourhood, has a travel history.
Then, a post-graduate student, of Channanikkad ward in Kottayam, tested positive. “She is not known to have even stepped out of her house. No one with any travel history has visited the house either,” said Dr Liji S Nair, Channanikkad ward member.
In nearby Panachikkad two people, a male nurse who works in a private hospital in Thiruvannahapuram and his mother, had tested positive on April 24. “But these two houses have no connection, they are not related nor are they family friends,” Dr Liji said.
This has now raised the possibility that the virus could be lurking undetected in Panachikkad panchayat.
One more person had tested positive in Kottayam, a 53-year-old man who runs a popular provision store at Vadayar ward in Thaliyolaparambu, Kottayam. The man had cough and fever and had still kept his shop open even on April 24.
He is said to have got the infection from his sister who had arrived from Australia. Not only is Australia a high-risk country but the man's sister is said to have arrived at least one-and-a-half months ago. No one else in the family has shown any symptoms either, triggering suspicions that he might have been infected by a carrier who had visited his shop.
In Idukki, four of the six fresh cases have been accounted for. Two, including a lady doctor, are primary contacts of a Mysore-returned woman who had tested positive on April 24.
But how this lady, who had reached Elappara from Mysore on March 25, was infected is not certain.
Another two in Vandiperiyar, a 37-year-old man and his seven-year-old daughter, have their infection traced back to Tamil Nadu. The family – father, mother and two daughters – had travelled to Tirunelveli for a marriage in March, just before the lockdown.
On their way back home, they were intercepted at Kumily check-post and quarantined. By the ninth day one of the girls showed symptoms and all four were tested. Along with the girl, the father too tested positive.
The source of infection of two cases, however, cannot be properly accounted for. A 25-year-old youth who had travelled from Malappuram has been declared positive. Officials say he got the infection from Malappuram. But from where, and from whom, in Malappuram are jigsaws that bother both Malappuram and Kottayam district administrations.
Another positive case in Idukki's Erattayar grama panchayat, a 24-year-old youth, had arrived from Germany, via Spain, on March 16. He has tested positive 43 days after his return.
He was tested not because he had any symptoms but because the panchayat wanted all the 10 foreign returnees within its boundaries to be tested. "He was the only one who tested positive. But he has no symptoms. He had also strictly observed his 28-day quarantine," said Eratayar North ward member Reji Elippulikkattu.
After his quarantine was over, the youth is said to have visited the market in Kattappana quite a few times.
