Only one new case in Kerala in past 24 hours, says CM

In a significant achievement, Kerala yesterday reported only one new coronavirus positive case in the past 24 hours, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

The number of people currently under treatment is 167, he said, adding 387people had recovered.

The chief minister said 264 people came from outside the state and the country, while eight were foreign nationals.

“Today there are 96,942 people under observation at home and 522 at various hospitals in the state,” said Vijayan.

“We are doing well in bringing down the number of cases,” the chief minister said.

“Tomorrow the state cabinet will decide on how to go about the lockdown norms of the central government. We are going to continue with our strict norms as any relaxation would not be good. Testing in our state is going on well and we are planning to increase the numbers,” Vijayan said.

“We have been informed that in the UAE more quarantine centres would be opened...that’s good news.”

The Kerala Police on Wednesday registered 2,499 cases and recorded the arrest of 2,343 people and impounded 1,842 vehicles for breaking curfew norms.

Vijayan refuted charges by opposition Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala on the data transfer of Covid-19 patients to a US-based PR and marketing firm Sprinklr.

“We have nothing to hide anything in this. State-owned CDIT will have full control of the data and so, there will be no data leaks. The data collected will be put in a server in our country only. Some people want to create a smokescreen over a nonissue,” Vijayan said.

“At a time when things have to be done quickly, as we have been doing to tackle Covid-19, the routine procedures (about any “understanding” with the firm) might not have taken place. There is no financial implication at all for the state,” he said.

Chennithala has been asking Vijayan to come clean on the transfer of data and repeated his charge yesterday.

“This deal is fraudulent and has no concurrence of either the health, IT or local self-government departments. Vijayan is beating about the bush,” said Chennithala.

He first raised the issue last week and at that time Vijayan had said the company belongs to a person from Kerala and that he had offered to help the state.

He also said that the government was not paying anything to the company.

“The agreement that has now been put out on the website is the one which is nothing but e-mails that are sent back and forth after I raised the issue. Vijayan said it’s for free, but the agreements now show it will be priced after Covid-19.

So the biggest bluff has now been exposed,” said Chennithala.