Kerala witnessed a spike in coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours with 12 people testing positive, including five British tourists who had been deplaned on March 15 for trying to surreptitiously leave the country along with an infected compatriot.

Six people in north Kerala’s Kasaragod district, bordering Karnataka, are among the 12 fresh cases, which has taken the cumulative number of infected people in Kerala to 40, including three who have recovered.

One man who had returned from the UK has tested positive in Palakkad district.

Of the six in Kasaragod, one had returned from Dubai by an Air India flight on March 11, stayed the night at a Kozhikode hotel, travelled 180km by train the next day, attended a football match and a family event, played carom at a club and also taken selfies with two MLAs. The 47-year-old, admitted to hospital on March 17, has caused a lot of concern.

“He ignored all the safety requirements… and moved around a lot in Kasaragod,” chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, adding that the government might have to take legal action against people who ignored safety protocols. “This kind of a spurt is the result of some people ignoring our requests to follow safety precautions to contain the spread,” Vijayan said.

Kasaragod would be locked down for a week starting Saturday. “All places of worship should remain closed for one week. Shops will stay open only from 11am to 5pm,” he said.

Of the others infected in Kasaragod, one man had returned from Dubai and the remaining four were primary contacts of another man who had tested positive after returning from Dubai earlier.