Thiruvananthapuram: As many as 121 people tested positive for coronavirus and 79 patients were cured of the deadly disease in Kerala on Monday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan informed during his press conference at Thiruvananthapuram. This is the 11th day in a row that Kerala is posting more than 100 cases.
Of the positive cases today, five had contracted the disease through contact. While 78 came from abroad, 26 came from neighbouring states. With this, the total number of cases in the state has surged to 4,311. Of them, 2057 are active cases. A Tamil Nadu native who died on June 24 was also found to have been infected by the virus taking the death toll in the state to 24.
Those who turned positive include three health workers and nine Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel.
Here's the district-wise breakup of today's positive cases:
Thrissur: 26
Kannur: 14
Pathanamthitta: 13
Malappuram: 13
Palakkad: 12
Kollam: 11
Kozhikode: 9
Ernakulam: 5
Idukki: 5
Alappuzha: 5
Thiruvananthapuram: 4
Kasaragod: 4
District-wise breakup of people who got cured:
Kollam: 18
Kannur: 13
Kozhikode: 8
Kottayam: 8
Alappuzha: 8
Malappuram: 7
Thrissur: 5
Ernakulam: 4
Palakkad: 3
Thiruvananthapuram: 3
Kasaragod: 2
The number of hotspots in the state has increased to 118. The Triple Lockdown system will be implemented at Ponnani taluk in Malappuram.
A total of 1,80,617 people are under observation in various districts. Of these, 1,77,955 are under home-quarantine and 2,662 are in hospitals. A total of 281 people were admitted in hospitals on Monday.
So far 2,24,727 samples were collected from people and of them, 1,71,846 samples tested negative.
As part of sentinel surveillance 46,689 samples were collected from priority groups, such as health workers, guest workers etc. Of them, 45,065 have returned negative.
Most number of cases were reported in Thrissur on Monday. Of the 26 cases, 15 are returnees from abroad and nine from other states. Two contracted the disease through contact. Both of them, a 47-year-old man of Vadakkanchery and 38-year-old man of Cherppu, are officials of the health wing of Thrissur corporation. They had come in contact with a corporation official who tested positive earlier.
Malappuram, where strong signs of community spread were seen recently as 10 people tested positive in sentinel surveillance, reported 13 more cases. However, all of them are imported cases or returnees. Twelve came from abroad and one from Bengaluru.
All the 13 cases reported in Pathanamthitta are also imported ones. While eight are returnees from abroad and five from other states.
Palakkad reported a contact case. A 55-year-old woman of Thirumittakkod contracted the disease from her husband who had tested positive on June 23. The man is a returnee from Qatar. Of the remaining 11 new cases, eight are returnees from the Gulf and three from Tamil Nadu.
Of the nine cases in Kozhikode, eight are returnees from abroad and one from Karnataka.
Ernakulam, Alappuza and Idukki districts reported five new cases each. Three patients in Ernakulam contracted the disease through contact. They include a 45-year-old health worker at the Community Health Centre, Kalady and her husband (53). They are natives of Kanjoor. Forty people, including health workers, who had come in contact with them were quarantined. The third person who contracted the disease through contact is an 81-year-old man, who is a close relative of the Malayatoor natives who had tested positive on June 23. The other two patients in the district are returnees from abroad.
In Idukki, three returnees from Tamil Nadu and one from Abu Dhabi tested positive. A 31-year-old native of Moolamattom, who works as a section officer at University veterinary hospital in Thrissur also tested positive. He had been home quarantined since June 26 following symptoms. Before that he had visited his wife and one-year-old child, parents and grandmother at Kuruthikulam. He used to stay at the Navy quarters in Aluva along with his relative. He used to travel to Thrissur by KSRTC bus from Aluva.
Of the five cases in Alappuzha, four are returnees from abroad and one from Delhi.
All the four men who tested positive in Thiruvananthapuram are returnees from the Gulf. Three of them are Tamil Nadu natives who tested positive at the airport in antibody tests.
Kottayam reported no new positive case on Monday. This is the fist day the district reported zero cases since June 1.
Key points from Pinarayi's press meet:
• In places where many cases are reported, at least 10,000 random tests will be conducted.
• In cases were the source has not been identified yet, we will be checking to see if COVID is spreading in clusters. We have launched a cluster management strategy to aid the efforts in these places. Stringent measures will be introduced including the closure of all but one road for entry/exit purposes in that cluster.
• We have also introduced a surge plan to contain the rise of COVID cases in containment zones.
• The government is pouring all its efforts into mitigating the threat posed by the COVID pandemic. I urge the Opposition too to aid the government in this effort. However, of late the Opposition had been working to derail the government's effort, growing seeds of suspicion in the people's minds.
• Widespread inspections should be conducted where more COVID-19 cases were reported in the Edappal and Ponnani areas. People with fever and respiratory problems will be examined.
• The government has abandoned all celebrations planned for its fifth year in office. The CM clarified that it is not because we don't have achievements to list, but there is a pandemic at hand and we must dedicate our efforts to curb it.
