The district on Tuesday recorded the highest rise in COVID-19 cases on a single day with 2,970 people testing positive for the virus infection. The Test Positivity rate for the day stood at a high 30.81 %.
The spurt in cases were most visible within the Kottayam municipality, which reported 426 cases, followed by Arppookkara with 139 and Maravanthuruth with 108 cases.
With 4,729 recoveries during the day, the district currently has 16,993 active cases. As many as 46,894 people are under observation.
The Pala General Hospital, which as on Tuesday morning had a stock of just 15 oxygen cylinders, is slated to get 49 more cylinders on Wednesday. Efforts are also being made to establish an Oxygen Generation plant at the hospital to tackle the crisis situations in future.
Alappuzha
In the biggest single-day spike so far, the district logged 1,770 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday. It also recorded six COVID-19-related deaths.
Previous daily high was recorded at 1,750 cases on April 24.
Of the 1,770 cases, as many as 1,759 patients contracted the disease through local contact. Besides, the source of infection of seven persons remains unknown. Two persons who came from abroad, one from another State and a health staff were also diagnosed with the disease. The test positivity rate in Alappuzha stands at 21.94%. The active COVID-19 caseload in the district jumped to 12,814.
Meanwhile, 136 people who were undergoing treatment for the disease in the district tested negative.
In view of the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases, the district administration has set up more treatment centres across the district. Officials said that eight domiciliary care centres, three COVID first-line treatment centres and a 70-bed COVID second-line treatment centre with oxygen facility at General Hospital, Alappuzha have been made ready in the district.
The district has 2,812 hospital beds for COVID-19 treatment. With the opening of more facilities, the number of beds would increase to 4,339.
Kollam
The district reported another spike in new cases with 1,591 persons testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 on Tuesday.
At the same time the number of recoveries exceeded the number of fresh cases and stood at 4,499.
While 1,578 patients contracted the virus through contact, others include three NRIs, four persons from another States and six health workers.
Kollam district currently has 20,279 people under observation and the total number of samples collected is 10,78,204.
While 1,298 persons completed home quarantine on Tuesday, the Health Department has traced 2,08,943 primary and 16,098 secondary contacts of the cases.
District Collector B.Abdul Nasar has imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in Thazhava panchayat till May 8.
Pathanamthitta
The second wave of COVID-19 continued to rage in Pathanamthitta with 1,163 people testing positive for the disease on Tuesday.
Of the fresh cases, 1,086 people contracted the virus through local transmission while the contact source of 19 people are yet to be ascertained. With 98 cases, Pathanamthitta municipality reported the biggest surge, followed by Thiruvalla with 78 cases.
The district also reported six COVID-19 related deaths.
With 684 recoveries during the day, Pathanamthitta currently has 8,484 active cases, besides 19,621 others under observation
Taking a serious note of the rising cases, District medical officer A.L.Sheeja urged the employees working in various offices to exercise caution.
“Alongside the rising cases and positivity rates, there has also been a huge increase in the number of patients under treatment over the past week,” she noted.
Meanwhile, the District police has intensified the enforcement of regulations and arrested 126 people over the last two days. As many as 1,199 persons were booked for not wearing face masks properly while cases were registered against 672 others for violating the social distancing norms.
(With reports from bureaus in Alappuzha, Kollam and Pathanamthitta)
