Sharp rise in virus cases as Kerala increases testing

TRIVANDRUM: Kerala has been reporting more than 1500 daily cases of COVID-19 for the past four days as the health authorities increased the number of tests to 30,000.

On Saturday, it added 1,608 more patients, another daily peak, when 32,108 samples were tested.

The southern state has so far tested some 1.16 million tests or 34,281 per million.

But the experts say it’s still inadequate and too late as many tests were repeated ones on patients.

Kerala has so far reported 42,835 cases since a medical student from Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic in China tested positive on Jan.30.

Of them, 14,891 patients are under care in hospitals while 27,779 have recovered and got discharged.

The death toll has risen to 146, excluding 45 people for fatal comorbidities, two for being non-natives and one for drowning.

Experts suggest state-wide serosurveillance tests across the state to know the depth of the spread as the level of testing is still low.

Health Minister KK Shylaja the other day had said she expected infections to rise up to 20,000 a day.

But that requires more tests, they say, and the state is not following the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on COVID death count.

According to Dr NM Arun, consultant-internal medicine and public health commentator, the state is dropping 35 to 40 per cent of fatalities from the list of deaths.

“Ideally we have to make the positivity rate around two per cent,” he told Gulf Today.

“So (we) need still a higher number of testing.” New cluster formations are also happening in the state. The central prison has now turned a major cluster of COVID-19 patients with 218 inmates testing positive.

Malappuram, with 362 new cases, has now overtaken the capital district (321), followed by Kozhikode (151), Alappuzha (118), Ernakulam (106) and Kollam (91).

Thehealthauthoritiesalsoreportedconfirmation of seven more deaths from COVID-19 ater the final test report from the National Institute of Virology.

Of the new cases, 90 were “imported” from other Indian states and 74 from abroad. The newly infected also include 31 health workers, including a central prison doctor.

Meanwhile, Congress lawmaker TN Prathapan said he would complain to President Ramnath Kovid against violation of the Constitution at Independence Day ceremonies.

Officials unfurled the national flag and inspected the guard of honour in at least six districts as chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and seven cabinet colleagues are in quarantine.