The infection appears uncontrollable along the Thiruvananthapuram coast and to make matters worse, stray cases were reported from many areas within the city limits and also from panchayats skirting the Corporation like Chrayankeezh, Peringammala, Katakkada and Parassala.
It is for the ninth day in a row that Thiruvananthapuram has topped the list of fresh cases. On Wednesday, it was 226, the fourth day the district clocked more than 200 cases. No other district in Kerala had recorded 200 cases even once.
Of the 226 cases, 190 were from contact. Nearly 95 per cent of the cases recorded till now in Thiruvananthapuram are acquired locally, which means they are not linked to imported cases.
As many as 15 cases declared on Wednesday have no known source of infection. The number of cases with unknown sources has climbed to nearly 70 in the district, hinting at unseen spread all through the district.
Among the cases are 18 health workers, and two of them are house surgeons in Thiruvananthapuram Medical College. With two more house surgeons declared positive, their primary contacts numbering nearly 20 house surgeons and PG students have been asked to go on quarantine. Over 200 medical staff in the Medical College are now in quarantine.
Over 30 health workers in the SAT Hospital, within the Medical College campus, have also gone into quarantine after a patient was declared positive.
Though cases are on the rise along the coast, at least 30 cases officially put out on Wednesday, especially in Chowara and Adimalathura in Kottukal panchayat, were declared a day ago. It is just that hey did no find a place n the official list on July 21.
However, the Poonthura belt yet again threw up more positive cases. On Wednesday, 50 tests were conducted in the area - Poonthura, Manikyavilakom and Puthenpally - and 18 were positive. Of this, 10 were from one family, which is proof that lockdown in a densely populated hamlet where two-three families are cramped together in a single shack has limited efficacy.
Down south in the Karumkulam-Pulluvila belt, a large virus cluster, 22 more tested positive when 48 were tested. Two deaths were also reported in the area on Wednesday. Both were above 70 with underlying medcal problems and had not yet been tested. One of them is said to be COVID positive though an official declaration is yet to be made.
The Vizhnjam belt comprising the Vizhnjam, Harbour, Mulloor, Kottapuram and Venganoor wards, as usual, had a relatvely low number of cases. Nearly 100 tests were done and 16 tested positive.
Problem is, 13 were from Kottapuram ward alone. This threatens to open up a new cluster within the relatively safe Vizhinjam belt.
Up north in Kadinamkulam, made up of affected coastal wards like Puthukurichy and Marianad, things looked calm for a change. 50 tests were done and only seven were positive. The upside is, all the 25 tests done in Marianad ward turned negative. Puthukurichy, however, had four fresh cases.
Back in the city, more cases are being reported in the Chala area. In the last two days, even though only a small number of tests were done, 14 cases have cropped up.
There are moves to close down the Chala market, the largest wholesale point in the district. "If more tests are done, we are sure to get considerably more cases," Chala member S K P Ramesh said.