New cases of COVID-19 slumped by nearly half on Monday in Kerala, registering just 4,138 new cases, when testing also dipped by as much to 33,345 samples in the past 24 hours.
This trend has been the same ever since the outbreak began in the State with testing invariably going down on Sunday, resulting in a dip in new cases reported on Monday.
The test positivity rate, at 12.4 %, has more or less been stabilised since the past week or more.
The State registered more recoveries than new cases on Monday, with 7,108 patients leaving hospitals.
While the cumulative case burden of the State went up to 4,44,268 cases, the good recovery rate of patients over the past week is reflected in the State’s active case pool, which has now come down to 86,681 cases. The total recoveries made in the State so far is 3,55,943.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said here that the State’s weekly increase in cases had dipped by 5% and that the cumulative case doubling period had increased to 40 days.
This means that at the current growth rate, the case graph has hit a plateau and it will be weeks before the State’s active case pool crosses the one-lakh mark. The recovery rate has also been on a high, helping the State’s hospitals from getting swamped.
The current case per million population ratio in the State, at 12,329, is more than double the national average of 5,963. However, the case fatality rate remains at 0.34 % in the State, which is much lower than the national average of 1.49%.
The addition of 21 new COVID deaths to the official list took the State’s total COVID toll to 1,533. Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam reported four deaths each, Alappuzha and Ernakulam three each, Thrissur two, and one case each by Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kottayam.
Official figures put the number of COVID-19 patients who are critically ill and in ICUs at 803, with 224 requiring ventilator support.
Of the new cases reported on Monday, 4,084 cases (98.6%) are locally acquired infections. Source of infection remain untraced in 438 cases. The number of health-care workers who contracted the infection is 47.
Among districts, Kozhikode reported 576 cases, Ernakulam 518, Alappuzha 498, Malappuram 467, Thrissur 433, Thiruvananthapuram 361, Kollam 350, Palakkad 286, Kottayam 246, Kannur 195, Idukki 60, Kasaragod 58, Wayanad 46 and Pathanamthitta 44 cases.
COVID vaccine trials
Mr. Vijayan said that the government had been in touch with the pharma firms Reddy’s Laboratories and Serum India Ltd. regarding the government’s willingness to conduct vaccine trials in the State. However, the former was yet to launch any clinical trials here. The latter had been provided details regarding the Government Medical Colleges at Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Kottayam. The State would take necessary steps and move forward as far as vaccine trials were concerned, he added.
He said that the Health Department had launched a new campaign utilising all modern means of communication to reinforce the importance of wearing masks to protect oneself and one’s family.
