Thiruvananthapuram: Three members of a family which had arrived from Italy have tested positive for coronavirus.
The family had arrived at the Nedumbassery airport by a Qatar Airways flight on Saturday night and straightaway headed for their home in Pathanamthitta district without reporting to the health authorities.
But by Sunday morning the health authorities had zeroed in one them: all three had symptoms of the virus and subsequently tested positive. Two family relatives were also found to be affected.
All the five have been isolated and are being shifted to the Kottayam Medical College, about 150 km from the State capital. All the passengers on their flight are being contacted by the respective district administrations.
Health Minister K K Shylaja addressed an urgently called press conference where she along with other senior officials appealed to the people to report anyone with a travel history to the affected area.
The minister also reminded the people that suppression of information about the disease and possible cases would be treated as a punishable offence, although she asserted that the overriding priority was to save lives.
Kerala is, meanwhile, keeping its fingers crossed as the state will soon witness the world’s biggest congregation of women -- Ponkala Mahotsavam -- at the Attukal Devi temple.
The minister has announced elaborate arrangements for the safe conduct of the festival. Anyone with symptoms of cough and cold or fever has been advised not to participate in the annual festival, known as women’s Sabarimala.
In recent years, up to 40 lakh women are believed to turn up for the annual ritual.
There have been suggestions from a section of doctors and experts that the festival must be cancelled this year due to the Covid-19 threat. There is also the advisory issued by the Union Health Ministry, advising people to stay away from large public gatherings.
The Kerala government, however, decided that the temple authorities should go ahead with the festivities as cancellation would have caused panic. Also, the decision was taken as no new positive cases had surface in the state.
But after the arrival of the infected family from Italy, there may be a cause for rethink.
Strict monitoring of the crowd, including video-taping, is on the cards to detect any sick person. Crowd control systems are being continuously sanitised to ensure that that there is no contamination.
