Kerala village emerges COVID-19 hotspot with nearly 200 cases

A major coronavirus hotspot has emerged in a remote vill in this district with a total of 199 people testing positive so far after eight members of two families contracted it first.

As many as 169 people tested positive in Val ward of Thavinhal panchayath till Thursday and 30 more on Friday, taking infection count to 199 as authorities undertook extensive screening of primary and secondary contacts since early this week, officials said.

" panchayat has been me a containment zone since Monday and we are hopeful of containing furr spre of virus," health department sources said.

hilly Wayan district has a total of 310 positive cases so far and 2,753 people are under observation.

It all began with seven members belonging to two families, related to each or, turned positive for dely virus last week after attending a funeral of a relative who died of COVID-19 at Kozhikode Medical College Hospital recently.

Besides, ar family member who attended a wedding last week, also tested positive for COVID-19, taking total cases in Val to eight.

health authorities conducted rapid antigen tests in area after tracing primary and secondary contacts of eight and detected 83 positive cases on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A Thavinhal panchayat official said rigorous testing by three different groups of medical teams, comprising five doctors and paramedical staff each, me it possible to test over 250 people on Wednesday alone.

According to Health department sources, estimated primary contacts in this area could be over 500 and secondary contacts between 1,500 to 2,000.

Medical teams are working overtime to collect more samples for testing from all primary and secondary contacts of infected persons, y ded.

Three entry points to panchayat through Periya Churam, Palchuram and Pakramthalam Churam ros h been closed by district ministration with only trucks carrying goods and essentials permitted.

On Saturday, Wayan accounted for 124 cases out of 1,310 fresh infections in state, which took its tally past 23,000 mark. 

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