After ten days of the emergence of new Coronavirus cases being limited to single digits—nil cases on two days —-there was alarming news from Kerala on Tuesday when 19 newly infected cases were detected in the state.
All 19 are the two northern most districts of the state; of them, 13 are gulf returnees, that is, people who returned to the state on or before March 24 when flights were suspended. If that indeed is the case, it is a pointer to a late emergence of positive cases which authorities feel is a cause for worry.
Equally worrying for the state authorities is the fact that at least 284 persons from Kerala who had participated in the Tablighi Jamaat convention in Nizamuddin in Delhi in mid March are still missing. Reports said that many of them have switched off their mobile phones, making it difficult for the authorities to trace them.
Out of the thousands who had visited Delhi for Tablighi Jamaat congregation, 518 people had returned to Kerala. They had been soon identified and all of them was put under home quarantine. Incidentally, only six of them have tested positive.
But 509 who attended the Markaz in Delhi from Kerala are yet to return to the state and are currently in other states like Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Their details have been passed on to the home authorities of those states.
Though Kerala had 408 cases as of April 20 and was on its way to flattening the curve, authorities now believe that developments like the missing Tablighis can topple the efforts.
-India Legal Bureau