255 new COVID-19 infections in Ernakulam

West Kochi area continues to report fresh cases, with 26 people from Mattancherry and eight from Fort Kochi testing positive

A total of 255 people tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the district on Monday. Of them, 11 arrived from outside the State and 244 acquired the infection through local transmission.

The West Kochi area continues to report several fresh cases of the infection, with 26 people from Mattancherry and eight residents of Fort Kochi testing positive. Other new cases of the infection were reported from areas including North Paravur, Muvattupuzha, Rayamangalam, Edathala, Alangad, Kothamangalam, Thrikkakara, Thripunithura, Thammanam, Thevara and Keezhmad.

As many as 125 people recovered and tested negative for the disease, while 3,265 people are being treated for it in the district. Of the positive patients, 1,188 people remain in isolation at home. A total of 21,245 people are in quarantine.

For testing, 1,086 samples were sent for testing from government facilities while 856 samples were collected at private labs and hospitals.

Healthcare workers

Four healthcare workers at private hospitals in the district tested positive on Monday, besides a worker from a private hospital in Kozhikode.

Since most healthcare workers who had tested positive so far had not been working at first-line treatment centres or COVID hospitals, they could have acquired the infection from interactions outside the hospital, said Dr. Mathews Numpeli, district programme manager, National Health Mission. Adequate context-specific personal protective equipment and training to avoid infection were being provided to healthcare personnel, he said.

A doctor at the Karuvelipady taluk hospital, where six staff members had tested positive earlier and recovered, also said that it was likely that healthcare workers in such situations could have contracted the infection from outside the hospital premises and not from patients. In one instance, a staff member who was positive had had meals with colleagues, carrying the infection to others, she said.

A doctor in-charge of infection control at a private hospital in the district said that if personal protective equipment was adequately provided, procedures generating aerosols were minimised, and patients triaged as necessary, the risk to healthcare workers could be minimised.