The district administration has stepped up containment measures and strengthened testing and surveillance in areas that reported the Delta variant of COVID-19.
“Teams headed by special officers are functioning efficiently in places that reported high test positivity rate in the district,” said Kollam Collector B. Abdul Nasar on Wednesday.
The authorities have issued revised guideline as per the test positivity rate-based classification and all government officials have been directed to report for duty if the TPR is below 15%.
In areas coming under category C with a TPR between 10% and 15%, only 50% of the staff will attend offices. As on Wednesday, the district has only five local bodies, Karavaloor, Aryankavu, Alappad, Thenmala and Munroe Thuruthu, in the A category where the weekly TPR remains below 5%.
In Kollam, extra curbs will be in place in 11 local bodies that reported a TPR above 15%. The local bodies in category D include Kareepra, Kalluvathukkal, Ezhukone, Vettikavala, Kukakada, Chirakara, Mayyanad, Ummannur, Nedumbana, Kulathupuzha and Thrikkovilvattam.
Testing will be intensified in railway stations and persons travelling without COVID-19 negative or vaccination certificates will be immediately shifted to domiciliary care centres. District and regional-level development committees will be formed to ensure hassle-free online classes and steps will be taken to provide free mobile data and network coverage to students.
Unlike many other districts, Kollam is yet to register a steady decline in COVID-19 cases with many parts logging several new patients.
The district has been recording more than 1,000 cases almost daily except for a couple of days since the lockdown. A Central team that visited Kollam on Tuesday assessed the caseload, mortality rate, TPR, treatment provisions, facilities for children and the availability of ICUs, ventilators and oxygen beds in Kollam. The district administration has also made all arrangements to face a likely third wave by setting up paediatric ICUs and deploying extra staff.
