Kerala’s seesaw battle with coronavirus saw the pandemic getting an upperhand on Sunday as seven persons tested positive for the pandemic. The new cases of covid-19 were reported from the districts of Wynadu (3), Thrissur (2) , Ernakulam and Malappuram (one each). K K Shylaja, Kerala Minister for Health, told a TV channel later in the evening that three of the seven fresh cases were from the expatriates who reached the State on Thursday.
The details of the status of covid cases in the State was disclosed through a press release by the Kerala Government as the daily media briefing by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was called off in the last minute.
The release stated that 26, 712 persons are under observation in the State as on Sunday. Out of this, 26,350 were under house observation while the rests have been hospitalized.
The Vande Bharat Air India flight which was to bring back 181 expatriates from Doha was cancelled in the last minute. The flight was expected to land in Thiruvananthapuram airport at 10 pm but the onward flight to Doha was not given permission by the Qatar Interior Ministry to land in that country, according to Gopalakrishnan, district collector, Thiruvananathapuram.
“We do not know the reasons for denial of permission for the Air India flight by the authorities in Qatar. But the passengers who had booked their tickets in this flight would be brought back on Tuesday,” said Gopalakrishnan. Besides passengers from the southern districts of Kerala, many persons hailing from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra had booked their tickets in this flight.
Though the specially trained pilots and cabin crew for the flight had boarded the aircraft at Kozhikode airport by Sunday noon, they were called back as the authorities in Qatar denied permission to the aircraft to land in Doha.
Notwithstanding setbacks like the return of coronavirus and the cancellation of the flight from Doha on Sunday, the State administration is going ahead with preparations to receive and take care of all the expatriates who are coming back.
Many private college buildings have been converted into temporary quarantine stations by modernizing and sanitizing them to receive the West Asian returnees.