In a meeting held on Tuesday by the Kerala Chief Secretary VP Joy, it was decided that house-to-house COVID-19 testing would be conducted in self-governing areas that had twice the positivity rate than their respective district’s rate.
For example, if the test positivity rate (TPR) of a district is 10% and any panchayat, municipality or corporation in that district has got more than 20% test positivity, then testing would be done in every house in that area.
More details regarding the implementation are awaited.
Some of the district collectors had asked for a weekend lockdown in their respective districts. But at the meeting on Tuesday, it was decided not to bring in a lockdown for the time being.
However, from April 20, nighttime curfew regulations will be implemented. Police have already started patrolling and checking to ensure COVID-19 protocol is being followed. From 9 pm to 6 am, from Tuesday, there will be restrictions in place with regards to commuting.
In a meeting headed by Chief Secretary VP Joy on Monday, it was observed that COVID-19 has been spreading even among the people who have taken both shots of vaccinations. So the Health Department was asked to find out whether the double mutant coronavirus is present in Kerala. It was also decided that on April 21 and 22 mass testing will be held in the state and around 3 lakh people will be tested.
On Tuesday, Kerala witnessed 19,577 cases, the highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases in the state. Out of which, 17,839 people were infected through local transmission. While 1,12,221 samples were tested in 24 hours, the TPR was at 17.45%.
Meanwhile, a huge rush has been reported at different vaccination centres in the state. Due to the crowd, the Health Department has decided to enforce mandatory online registration even for the second shot.
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