Kerala sees challenging times ahead as the state’s COVID-19 test positivity rate has increased. Addressing the public, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said that the positivity rate has increased to 8 in Kerala. Ideally, the positivity rate should be 2 or lower if the virus is in control. According to the World Health Organization, the test positivity rate should be at or below 5% for at least 14 days, before a place or region decides to open up.
Test positivity rate is the percentage of people who test positive for the virus out of those overall who have been tested. It is calculated by dividing the number of positive tests by the total number of tests.It is an indicator of the spread of the infection.
Pinarayi also added that while positivity rate has increased, the state has been able to restrict the mortality rate due to COVID-19.
The state’s Test Positivity Rate or TPR which is currently 8 is close to Delhi’s TPR and higher than the country’s TPR.
However, officials have said that a high TPR could be temporary as tests dipped during Onam. Only close to 18,000 tests were done per day during Onam time. This will now be increased to 30,000 or even 50,000 tests.
On Thursday, Kerala reported 1553 cases of the virus, taking the total active cases to 21,931. Among the new cases, 1391 people contracted the infection through contact and the source of infection for 156 cases is yet to be identified. 28 of them had returned from abroad and 90 from other states. Moreover, 40 health workers in the state also tested positive on Thursday.
Another 1950 patients also tested negative for the virus on Thursday.
The state reported ten COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, taking the total number of deaths in the state to 306. CM Pinarayi also added that 1,92,168 persons were under observation in the state, out of which 18,033 were admitted to hospitals.
At least 30,342 samples were taken for testing in the last 24 hours.