Coronavirus | Low volume of cases but more affected areas

Health officials are looking out for some areas where there could be community transmission.

If mapped by location, the pattern of COVID prevalence in Puducherry would indicate a low volume of cases spread across several areas.

The 32 active cases as of Monday have been reported from as many as 11 neighbourhoods in Villianur, Arumbarthapuram, Lawspet, Muthialpet, Mannadipet, Nettapakkam, Periyakalapet, Dharmapuri, Kurumbapet, Reddiarpalayam, Moolakulam, Ariankuppam and Thirubhuvanai.

While no area has seen more than a handful of cases, the task of monitoring the far-flung neighbourhoods pose a challenge of its own. “We can trace the recent increase in cases to the return of residents from abroad and other States and the transmission within the family of an affected patient,” said S. Mohan Kumar, Director of Health.

In fact, roughly half the cases in Puducherry at present can be accounted for by returnees who have tested positive and the single-source transmission from a worker in a private factory. While eight returnees have tested positive for COVID-19, at least seven co-workers at the factory got the infection from the index patient.

Health officials are looking out for some areas where there could be community transmission. District Collector T. Arun said that at present Puducherry had 11 containment zones. “We are only sealing affected places on a street level to avoid largescale disruption of life in entire neighbourhoods,” he said.