Thiruvanthapuram: Three people from the Kannur district have tested Covid-19 positive on the 28th day after they returned to the state of Kerala from the Middle East.
All of them were asymptomatic but were tested as they have traveled back home from a high risk area.
How many days should one stay in quarantine? This is a question that has been asked by many after a number of people with travel history are still testing positive for the novel coronavirus, even though domestic and international flights in the country were stopped on March 24.
Right from the first days of testing, the state government of Kerala has insisted on a 28 day quarantine period and the recent positive cases show that proceeding with caution was right.
In Kannur district itself, 34 people have been tested positive in the 14 to 28 days period and most of them are asymptomatic. In the Pathanamthitta district, 4 people have been tested positive after 14 days.
"Incubation period means the time between exposure and appearance of the first symptom. It is not related to testing positive. Around 97 percent of the people develop symptoms within 14 days. There is a recorded case in Wuhan where the symptoms appeared on the 27th day," Dr Mohammed Asheel, public health specialist and member of the core team to tackle Covid-19, said.
The doctor added that about 3 per cent of the cases are outliers, which means they can turn symptomatic even after 14 days up to 28 days, meaning that a person has to be in quarantine for a minimum of 28 days.
In Kannur district, while contact tracing one of the cases the health department saw that an elderly person contracted the diseases from his asymptomatic grandson.
“The core committee decided to collect the swabs of all those people who had returned from Middle East who had not completed their 28 day period quarantine by March 18,” said Dr Latheesh KV, District Programme Manager, National Health Mission.
Dr Latheesh added that in most of these cases the patients are asymptomatic and in the younger age group. "This is a concern as the virus would be idle and silent but they will be carriers and can transfer the virus to a vulnerable group. That is why we decided to collect samples of all those who returned from high risk area."
The DPM added that though their results have come even after 30 days, their samples were collected before 28 days.
“The district health surveillance team has identified 529 gulf returnees whose samples were collected; till yesterday 30 have been tested positive. We are waiting for the results of 214 people and 285 has returned negative.” Said Dr K Narayana Naik, District medical officer, Kannur.
The DMO added that there is no need to panic as all of these people were under strict home quarantine. They are expecting the cases will show a rise in the next two days also.
The state has recorded 437 cases of which 308 have recovered and 127 are active cases.
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