New cases remain uncomfortably high in Thiruvananthapuram district. On Monday, it was 181, the seventh consecutive day the district has topped the tally of fresh cases in Kerala.
Of this, 170 are contact-induced, and close to 140 cases are from the coastal areas. While the virus appears to run riot along the coast, deep in the heart of the capital city, the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College has emerged as another disease cluster.
Monday's figures reveal that those contracting the disease from the hospital are freely taking it out to the community.
Relief along the coast
Even then, there is reason to feel a slight relief. The real number of fresh cases, as opposed to the figures put out officially on Monday, shows that the virus has begun to yield along the coast. (The real numbers are collected from ward members and health inspectors)
Many of the hotspots along the coast - Poonthura, Karumkulam and Anchuthengu - have thrown up a considerably lesser number of positive cases on Monday. Still, the number has to keep low for at least three more days to indicate an encouraging trend.
In the Poonthura belt, for instance, 54 tests were done on Monday and only 15 tested positive, a positivity rate of 28 per cent. In the last nine days, the belt had a positivity rate of over 50 per cent.
However, in the official list, there are 28 cases in Poonthura on Monday. Health officials admit that these are cases carried over from the previous days.
Similar is the situation in Karumkulam, which has intensely affected wards like Pulluvila and Puthiyathura. 50 tests were done in the panchayat on Monday and only 11 tested positive. This was for the first time in eight days that the positivity rate in the district's southern village has gone below 50 per cent.
However, the official list shows that there are 18 cases in Karumkulam.
In Anchuthengu village, too, only 15 were found positive when 50 tests were done on Monday. Interestingly, these numbers are not reflected in the day's official list. "The fresh cases found today will be included in tomorrow's list," a health inspector said.
In the Vizhinjam belt, the cases have been scattered and have never shown a tendency to flare up. Church and mosque committees have a played a big role in containment and this is one coastal area where social distancing norms are adhered to religiously.
Uncivil disobedience
The viral outbreak but shows no sign of abatement in Kadinamkulam fishing hamlet. On Monday, 85 tests were done and 24 were declared positive.
The non-cooperation of residents in the area is standing in the way of containment. "We have identified many with fever and running nose, potential virus carriers. But none of them is willing to come to the PHC for their samples to be taken," said Felix P, Kadinamkulam panchayat president. "We are planning to enlist the support of the police to force them to give their samples," he said.
Medical College cluster
As if the worries along the coast was no enough, the situation in Thiruvananthapuram is worsening with every passing day. On Monday, 14 patients and 10 bystanders were declared positive sending another set of doctors in surgery and orthopaedic wards into quarantine. At least two bystanders who had tested positive on Monday has passed on the infection to other family members at home.
Already 20 health workers in the Medical College, seven of them doctors, have tested positive.
Nearly two-thirds of doctors in the surgery ward are now in quarantine. The results of the mass testing done on postgraduate students and house surgeons in the Medical College are yet to be declared.
Delayed results
The delayed announcement of results has induced a bit of panic among the doctors in the Medical College. "The result of a patient whose sample was taken on July 15 came only today, five days late. So the doctors and other staff who had tended to the patient thinking he was non-infective are now suspect. In these last five days, they had gone to very close to other patients and mingled with other doctors. This has put the entire system at risk," a senior surgeon said.
Besides quickening the announcement of results of doctors and patients, doctors want personal protective equipment (PPEs) gears provided to doctors in non-COVID wards, too.
Save doctors, save the community
"Now, only doctors on COVID duty use PPE kits. But since the spread has become more widespread many patients coming to non-COVID wards and OPs for the treatment of other diseases are turning out to be positive. It is high time we realised that there is a community spread and did everything possible to insulate health professionals. Providing PPE kits to all doctors in the Medical College is a major step in that direction. Or else there will be no doctors left to treat," the surgeon said.
He said the Medical College should be considered a large COVID cluster like Poonthura. "No health worker is allowed to move around Poonthura without wearing a PPE kit. The same protocol should be implemented in the Medical College," the surgeon said.
Preventive detention
There appear to be other failures, too, at the Medical College. For instance, the wife of a person admitted to the surgery ward in the Medical College. Right after the patient was declared positive, his wife who was his bystander ever since he was admitted was allowed to go home.
Back home in Kudappanakkunnu, she has infected her five-year-old grandson and also a neighbour. “She should have been quarantined in a government facility rather than sent home,” said Anitha S, Kudppanakkunnu ward councillor.
