Kerala: Two-day holiday in Kozhikode following Nipah outbreak

In the wake of the Nipah outbreak in this north Kerala district a holiday has been declared for all educational institutions on Thursday and FridayThe holiday was declared by Kozhikode District Collector A Geetha who in a Facebook post said educational institutions can arrange online classes on the two days for studentsHowever there will be no change in university exams schedule she addedA 24year old health worker became Keralas fifth confirmed Nipah case on Wednesday since its recent outbreakMeanwhile a 24hour control room was set up in the neighbouring district of Wayanad following the Nipah outbreak in KozhikodeThe Wayanad district administration also constituted 15 core committees to lead the prevention and surveillance activities and effectively deal with emergency situationsThe virus strain seen in the state was the Bangladesh variant that spreads from human to human and has a high mortality rate though it is less infectious the government saidThe condition of all 76 people who are in the highrisk contact category remains stable State Health Minister Veena George had saidThe government had also said that 13 others who have mild symptoms are now being monitored in the hospital and only a 9year old child among those infected is in the Intensive Care UnitIt had said that monoclonal antibodies have been ordered from ICMR to treat the child It is the only available antiviral treatment for Nipah virus infection though it has not been clinically proven yetA review meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was also held in the wake of the outbreak of the braindamaging virusThe highlevel meeting chaired by the CM analysed the situation thoroughly and we have come to the conclusion that all the possible prevention measures are in place and there is no need to panic George had saidThe minister had also said the WHO and ICMR studies had found out that the entire state of Kerala is prone to getting such infections not just KozhikodePeople living in forest areas have to take the highest precautions George had said and added that the latest case of the Nipah virus originated within five kilometres of a jungle areaFour more wards three in Villyapally panchayat and one in Purameri panchayat in Kozhikode district had been declared as containment zones yesterday in addition to those announced on TuesdayConsidering the serious nature of the disease the Kozhikode administration had on Tuesday declared seven village panchayatsAtanchery Maruthonkara Tiruvallur Kuttiyadi Kayakkodi Villyapalli and Kavilumpara as containment zonesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever