What looked like a coastal outbreak in Thiruvananthapuram has now spread right to the heart of the capital city.
The daily case count in the district was an astounding 339 and this accounted for nearly half (47 per cent) the cases reported in Kerala on Thursday. No other district in Kerala had ever crossed a daily tally of even 150.
Nearly 80 employees of Ramachandra Hyper Market, a popular one-stop shop for household goods in the city, were tested positive in the last two days.
Break down in Medical College
The surgery ward of Thiruvananthapuram Medical College was shut down after five healthcare workers - three PG students, one house surgeon and a nursing assistant - tested positive, the first time such a large number of healthcare workers tested positive in a single medical unit.
It is suspected the health workers got the virus from two patients admitted for routine surgical procedures, which again is a telltale sign of the virus spreading undetected in the district. Questions have also been raised about the negligent preventive protocols in a premier institution like the Medical College.
Hyper market's unending contact list
The hyper market cluster could pose a strategic nightmare for preventive health authorities as contact tracing of these employees is virtually impossible. It is obvious that hundreds had visited the shop this month, and each in turn would have come into contact with at least 50 people, setting off an invisible spiral of contacts.
Self disclosure is the only way out. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has asked people to voluntarily appear before health authorities if they had been to the hyper market in the last two weeks.
It was in a North Indian employee of Ramachandra that Sars-CoV-2 was first detected, ten days ago. He is said to have been working at the mobile counter of the hyper market, and had no travel history.
However, most employees are Tamil Nadu natives and it is said they had managed to go home during the lockdown and had returned when the lockdown was eased. Some were even found to have sneaked back into the border.
Now, the virus has been detected in 78 employees of the hyper market.
These employees are lodged in 10 staff quarters spread over four wards in the capital, which again is a source of worry. During their off days or holidays, it is feared these employees could have mingled with people in the street and visited shops nearby.
Virus sweeps through the coast
All this while, the virus continues to rage along the coast. Over 150 cases, as was the norm during the last few days, have been reported along the coast on Thursday too.
The only difference is in the incidence of the disease. Now, it is not just in Poonthura where the spread is rampant. The numbers continued to spiral in Poonthura. Though only 50 tests were done, 30 tested positive in the area.
Now, large new clusters have developed to the north and south of Poonthura.
Some 20 kilometres south of Poonthura, in Karumkulam village, 72 tested positive when 150 samples were tested on Thursday. There are nearly 150 cases in the village by now.
Though Karumkulam is also a fishing village like Poonthura, the first case in the village had no links to Kumarichantha fish market. In short, it is still not clear how the disease spread in the area. Many auto drivers in the area, who again had no links to the fish market, were also found positive. In fact, many wards in the panchayat are yet to be tested.
Some 25-30 kilometres north of Poonthura, two major clusters have developed; Kadinamkulam and Anchuthengu. In Kadinamkulam 100 tests were done on Thursday and 26 tested positive, and this includes a cancer patient. Among the positive cases, 13 were from a single family.
Slightly north, in Anchuthengu fishing village, 31 tested positive when 100 samples were taken on Thursday. By now there are 80 COVID patients in this small village.
In Kadinamkulam and Anchuthengu, there appears to be a Kumarichantha connection. It is said that fish vendors in these panchayats buy fish from Muthalapozhi harbour nearby where the fish, in turn, comes from Kumarichantha.