THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Close to 200 results sent from Pothencode in the wake of the Covid-19 death of local resident came out negative recently, quelling all the worries about a community spread. However, experts are divided on the danger being averted as the primary source, in this case, was never identified and the chances of identifying one seem bleak at this point. Experts believe that there are two possibilities-either the primary contact was asymptomatic and never got diagnosed or there is another level of silent transmission underway.
However, a district administration official maintained that the danger in Pothencode has mostly passed and no other angles are being explored. “All the results came out negative. Despite very close contact with him, none of the patient’s immediate family contracted the virus either. No one in Pothencode other than a Gulf returnee has contracted the virus. There is not much left to explore on that front than keep alert and report symptoms,” said the official.
In the beginning, a Kasaragod connection to the patient who died was being explored. However, it proved to be a dead end. Since the patient was in ventilator, the route map was prepared with the help of relatives and local residents.
“There were many errors in the route map. It was said that he attended four funerals. But, it turned out he attended only one. Then there were rumours that he frequents a tea shop which were fake. However, all these errors were managed when the district administration launched two health check-up camps to test anyone who came into contact with him and collected samples. Even now, we are taking people who report to us to get them tested,” said Venugopalan Nair, Pothencode panchayat president.
A total of 202 people were tested from Pothencode for Covid-19 and all 202 are negative. Apart from this, 250 people were strictly under observation in the panchayat and none of them has any symptoms so far.