KASARAGOD: Ajanur panchayat office has been shut and around 20 employees have been asked to stay in quarantine as a personal assistant of minister for Devaswom and Cooperation Kadakampally Surendran tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.
Health officials said Damodharan Thannot, a resident of ward no. 2 of Ajanur panchayat, tested positive during an antigen test. Ajanur panchayat president P Damodharan has also gone into quarantine as he had ridden a pillion on Thannot's motorcycle.
The personal assistant used to visit the panchayat office and had come in close contact with at least 20 employees, health officials said.
Thannot returned from Thiruvananthapuram three weeks ago. He was active in his panchayat, attending meetings.
He recently visited a relative who was ill in Pariyaram medical college. The relative, also a native of Ravaneshwarm, tested positive for COVID on Monday.
As a precaution, Thannot visited the Periya health centre and took the antigen test and was found to be positive. Health officials said the PA, by his nature of work, had come in contact with a lot of people. He had attended a meeting to raise money for an NRI who recently ended his life.
He also took part in a meeting of the CPM's local committee and attended the meetings of AIDWA, Chithari Service Cooperative Bank. He had also visited a barbershop, ration shop, and Triveni store.
A funeral becomes a COVID spreader
A funeral in Cherkala has become a superspreader of COVID in Kasaragod district. Health officials said 36 persons who attended the funeral on July 3 have tested positive. "Even now we are getting positive cases," said district surveillance officer Dr A T Manoj.
Collector D Sajith Babu has asked all those who attended the funeral and their contacts to go into room quarantine for the next 14 days.
Kasaragod market is another COVID cluster with 53 cases. "People from several panchayats work and come to shop there. So, the cluster infected people from several panchayats," said Dr Manoj.
The collector has ordered all those who visited the Kasaragod market on and after July 5 to go into room quarantine, and not mingle even with family members.
Similarly, those who visited the Kumbla market on and after July 6 should also stay in isolation for the next 14 days. There are eight cases in Kumbla market clusters
In Manjeshwar panchayat, those who played football in wards no. 11, 13, and 14 on July 12 have been asked to go into a 14-day room-quarantine.
37 of 40 COVID cases via contact
Thannot's case does not figure in the 40 persons who tested positive for COVID in the district on Tuesday.
Of the 40 cases, 37 persons contracted the disease through the local transmission. The sources of infection of three persons are not known, said district medical officer Dr A V Ramdas.
Three health workers are among those who tested positive on Tuesday. Two persons came from abroad and one arrived from Karnataka.
In Kasaragod town, seven men tested positive.
In Madhur panchayat, a 26-year-old health worker and a 51-year-old man tested positive.
In Chengala panchayat, seven members of one family and three members of another family tested positive.
In Kumbla panchayat, a 38-year-old health worker and five members of her family tested positive for COVID on Tuesday.
Another female health worker, aged 23 years, also tested positive in Kumbla. Two girls, aged seven and two years, of one family, were also found to be infected by the virus.
The sources of infection of three men in Kinanur Karinthalam (25 years old), Nileshwar (75 years old and 35 years old) were not known.