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In a third such instance, a traveller from abroad in Palakkad district refused to self-quarantine, and threatening to create a potential COVID-19 cluster.
Earlier instances were reported from Kasaragod and Pathanamthitta, leading to a spike in infections and quarantine in those places.
A case has been registered against the traveller, who has been tested positive, and his son, a Kerala Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus conductor, has been put under observation.
The father had arrived home on March 13 and had spent a week with family, friends and the public before surrendering with symptoms on March 21. The case has been registered for failure to go into a quarantine, a mandatory procedure for all international returnees.
Till now in Kerala, infections have been spawned by the international travellers or their primary contacts. Health authorities have diligently prepared their route maps, though not always with full success, and alert those who may have come into contact with them during their local sojourns.
The Kasaragod and Palakkad cases are giving a tough time to the authorities because of the number of local trips they have made and people who they might have potentially infected. Moreover, the Kasaragod case has not shared all facts.
The KSRTC has prepared a route map based on the duty chart of the bus conductor, who, along with family members, are now under observation. He was on duty on the Mannarkad-Anakkatti-Coimbatore bus on March 17 (leaving Mannarkad at 6.15 am) and Mannarkad-Thiruvananthapuram bus (leaving Mannarkad at 7 am) on March 18. The KSRTC has requested passengers of these buses to be careful.
As on Wednesday, the number of people under observation in the state are 76,542, of which 76,010 are home quarantines and 532 are in hospital. Wednesday saw 122 fresh admissions. The number of fresh positive cases being reported were in double figures for five days from March 20 to 24. But it has retracted to single digit (9) on Wednesday, offering some respite to the state health department.
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