The pandemic situation in the State is becoming rather grave with an increase in cases of local transmission and more and more areas ion the State becoming containment zones, the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said here on Monday.
The government is attempting to focus testing in areas where more cases of local transmission with untraceable source of infection had been reported to check if COVID clusters were forming and to do everything to prevent it, he said.
In areas where intense disease transmission was being reported, the number of tests would be hiked to 10,000, Mr. Vijayan said.
Cluster management
He said that the Health Department had planned a cluster management strategy, wherein, cases and the contacts would be traced and containment zones would be declared according to the geographical distribution of these elements.
There would be a single entry-exit point at these containment zones and people’s movement would be strictly regulated.
Mr. Vijayan said that the new rapid viral antigen detection kits would be procured and used widely. House to house visits would be made and everyone with any mild respiratory symptoms would be tested for SARS-CoV-2.
He said that the government had readied even a detailed surge capacity plan for hospitals in case the positive cases in containment zones go up again.
While the government is doing its best to prevent disease transmission and to contain it wherever it is occurring, it is up to the public to cooperate with the authorities and ensure that the preventive measures were followed properly, he added.
