A journalist with a Malayalam channel tested positive for Covid-19 in Kerala’s Kasaragod district on Wednesday, becoming the first mediaperson to be infected with the virus in the southern state.

The reporter was part of the first batch of 10 media personnel in the state who were screened on Tuesday.

An official in Kasaragod told this newspaper it was up to the medical authorities to take a call if other journalists in the district needed to be quarantined too.

“All the journalists should be very careful during these times,” chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan told a media briefing.

The journalist who tested positive was immediately taken to the Kasaragod district hospital but, sources said, he is likely to be shifted to the Government Medical College in neighbouring Kannur.

“He is a native of Kannur and hails from a place close to the medical college which is better equipped,” the official in Kasaragod, who declined to be named, told The Telegraph.

Kasaragod was the number one hotspot at one time with 176 Covid-19 cases but quickly became the country’s first district to log 100 recoveries.

As of Wednesday, Kasaragod has 12 cases and continues to be in the red zone.

Vijayan said 10 new Covid-19 cases were reported in the state on Wednesday, among them three health workers and the journalist.

While six of them are from Kollam, two each tested positive in Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod.

The day also saw 10 patients being discharged after they tested negative. Among them three each were from Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod, while one was from Pathanamthitta.

Wednesday’s count took the total number of cases in the state to 495, including three deaths and 369 recoveries while 123 patients are under treatment.