The fast and intense transmission of COVID-19 along the State’s coastal belt, with the population in entire fishing villages affected, has put Thiruvananthapuram district in an extremely sensitive situation. The government has been forced to bring in more restrictions in fishing activities as well as people’s movement.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan officially conceded here on Friday that community transmission has already happened at Pulluvila and Poonthura villages in Thiruvananthapuram and that only a coordinated approach, with the active involvement of the local community, alone can check the situation from getting out of hand.
Thiruvananthapuram alone accounted for 246 out of the 791 fresh cases reported in the State on Friday. Local transmission has resulted in 244 of these cases, with 112 cases being reported from the coastal wards.
One more death
Of the State’s 791 new cases, 557 were cases of local transmission, with missing epidemiological link in 42 cases. The cumulative case burden went to 11,066 cases, with the number of active cases being 6,029. The death of a 46-year-old in Thrissur on July 15, which has now been confirmed as due to COVID-19, takes the State’s death toll to 38.
Mr. Vijayan said that considering the intense and unusual state of disease transmission in the capital district, full lockdown would have to be imposed in the district’s coastal areas and that the movement of people within and out of the containment zone would have to be strictly prevented.
The State now has 10 large community clusters and 84 clusters scattered across many districts, with most of the community clusters formed along the entire 200-km coastal belt from Thiruvananthapuram to Ernakulam.
The Chief Minister claimed that things were still within the State health administration's grip and that proper implementation of containment activities within the clusters could help limit the disease transmission within the clusters themselves.
He said that when the cases began going up exponentially, the State had been anticipating community transmission and that with heightened vigil and people’s cooperation, all-out efforts should be launched to ensure that the disease did not spread to newer areas.
The government would manage the burgeoning case numbers by opening up more first-line treatment centres across all districts, where all mild and asymptomatic cases would be managed. Patients would be shifted to hospitals if they required a higher level of care.
He said the State needed the support of front-line volunteers and doctors and nurses, retired hands or fresh qualified hands to manage the first-line treatment centres.
