Kerala Finance Minister, Dr Thomas Isaac, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Sunday. It is the first time that a state minister in Kerala is being tested positive for the disease. Many people, including the personal staff of the minister, have been sent into quarantine after it was found that the Minister has COVID-19.
Several ministers of other states and Union Ministers including Home Minister Amit Shah had previously been found to have contracted the disease.
Sources in the Chief Minister’s Office confirmed to TNM that Dr Thomas Isaac has tested positive for COVID-19.
On Sunday, Kerala also crossed the highest single day spike with 3,082 people testing positive for the disease. This has taken the total infection count in the state to 87,840, including recovered people and those under treatment.
Fifty health workers were among those infected by the virus. With 10 more deaths the toll rose to 348 in the state.
State Health Minister K K Shailaja, in a release said, out of the new patients, 56 reached the state from abroad, 132 from other states and 2,844 contracted the disease through their contacts.
The release also said 2,196 people were discharged in the last 24 hours taking the total cured to 64,755 in the state.
"Currently, there are 22,676 people under treatment in the state. There are 2,00,296 people under observation out of which 17,507 are in isolation wards of various hospitals," the Health Minister said in the release.
Among the districts where new cases were reported, Thiruvananthapuram accounted for 528, followed by 328 in Kollam district, 281 in Ernakulam district, 264 from Kozhikode, 221 in Alappuzha district and others.
Kerala has tested 41,392 samples during the last 24 hours. At present, there are 557 hotspots in Kerala.