KOCHI: A three-year-old boy was on Monday tested positive for novel coronavirus in Kerala 's Kochi district. With this, the total number of cases in the state has risen to nine.The boy along with his family had returned from Italy on March 7.The child reached Nedumbassery on a Dubai-Kochi flight at 6.30am. The universal screening system installed at the airport revealed fever. He was immediately transported to the isolation ward of the Medical College in a special ambulance by the department of health. The child, the mother and the father are in isolation. Samples of mother and father have been sent for examination.Authorities are collecting information about fellow passengers on the plane. It will be handed over to different districts. Those who come in contact with the child are being monitored.Kerala health minister KK Shailaja had on Sunday said that the state was been put on high alert in the wake of new cases, reported more than a fortnight after India's first three coronavirus patients -medical students from Wuhan- were discharged from hospitals in the state.