The State government has continued to maintain that community transmission of COVID-19 is yet to happen in Kerala. On Wednesday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the State was on the brink of community transmission and that disease transmission had reached a stage wherein every other person one encountered on the street could be a potential COVID-19 transmitter. This was especially so with over 60% of the patients in the State not displaying any symptoms.
Sounding this dire warning to the public, he said the public needed to maintain utmost vigil in all public places such as markets or hospitals, where more people congregate. Avoiding crowded places, close interactions or close-contact settings and confined or enclosed settings was extremely important to minimise chances of disease transmission.
Even when the State’s case fatality ratio was low, disease transmission had reached a stage wherein the proportion of serious patients and mortality was bound to go up. More focus was thus needed in districts where local transmission was going up, to protect vulnerable groups and to increase testing in the community.
Over 1.84 lakh people are currently under surveillance and in quarantine in State, of whom 4,989 persons with mild COVID-like symptoms are isolated in hospitals. The daily number of tests in the State went up to 16,444 in the past 24 hours.
