Three more KEAM candidates test COVID positive in Kerala

Three more students who had written the Kerala Engineering Architecture Medical (KEAM) Examination have been found COVID positive. Already two students and a parent had tested positive, taking the total number of KEAM victims to six, including the parent.

One of the three students is a resident of Poonthura, the coastal hotspot in Thiruvananthapuram. He wrote the exam on July 16 at St Antony’s school Valiathura, a coastal school. District collector Navjot Khosa confirmed this saying the boy was tested on July 20. "He is still asymptomatic. He was tested since his mother became positive on July 20," the collector said.

The other students who wrote the examination with the boy, and their families, have been identified and informed about the situation. The entire coastal area, however, is now under full lockdown. Now three KEAM candidates, and one guardian, from Thiruvananthapuram have tested positive.

Another student who wrote the KEAM examination at Malabar Christian College Higher Secondary School has also tested positive. The student is an Olavenna native. Kozhikode district administration sources said that a close relative of the boy, a Gulf returnee, had also tested positive.

The third student is a native of Anchal, in Kollam. She had written the examination at Mannam Memorial School, Kaimanam, Thiruvananthapuram. She is said to have developed symptoms four days ago, according to a report by Manorama News. The Anchal student's status has not been officially confirmed.

Even after the results of two students and a parent turned positive, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said there was nothing to worry. "The exam was conduced with all necessary precautions," the Chief Minister said on July 21.

Case registered against 300 people

Meanwhile, the Thiruvananthapuram city police have registered a case against 300 identifiable people for violating the COVID-19 protocol and crowding outside the St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School, Pattom, and the Cotton Hill school under the Kerala Epidemic Diseases Ordinance, 2020.