Even though the low rate of disease transmission in the State seems to offer some hope, the next three to four weeks are projected to be a critical phase as far as COVID-19 containment and mitigation is concerned and the State cannot relax its guard, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
Briefing media here on Saturday, he said the situation involving COVID-19 was still evolving and given the high density of population in the State, there were fears about disease transmission going out of control if at all there was any let-up in vigil.
The number of people who were newly testing positive seemed to be on the decline, while the number of those patients testing negative after treatment was on the rise. This is an expected projection because the testing is now being done within a pool of people already in quarantine and this pool is declining rapidly as people complete their quarantine period.
New cases
On Saturday, 10 new cases were reported in the State, of which three were people who had returned home from abroad, while the remaining seven were primary contacts of imported cases of infection. Nineteen patients who were on treatment had tested negative on Saturday. Of the new positive cases, seven were located in Kannur, two in Kasaragod and one in Kozhikode.
The total number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 so far in the State is 373. Only 228 are currently under treatment. The State has so far tested samples of 14,163 persons, of which 12,818 results have been negative. The Chief Minister said that even as the entire focus of the health system was on containing the disease, one should not lose sight of other diseases being reported from various parts of the State.
Disinfectant tunnels
He said that according to experts, the “disinfectant tunnels” set up in public places in some districts, which allowed people to walk through a fine spray of sodium hypochlorite, thereby “sanitising” them, was unscientific. The District Collectors had been informed that there was no need for such arrangements anywhere, Mr. Vijayan said.
The Public Works Department was continuing to identify and list rooms with attached bathrooms across the State, which could be used as isolation rooms. Already over 2.5 lakh rooms had been identified, of which 1.10 lakh rooms were ready to be used. Local bodies have been asked to identify empty houses or apartments within their jurisdiction.
He said the State’s health system had the capacity to deal with any exigency. Though the COVID-19 projections in the coming months, drawn up by the State Disaster Management Authority, showed the numbers to be huge, these were dependent on various variables. There was no need to create scare among the public using these projections, he said.
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