Three people died of COVID-19 related complications in Kerala on Tuesday, December 19. The state also recorded 292 new cases in the 24 hours till 8 am on Wednesday, taking the total number of active cases in the state to 2041. The number of cases where COVID-19 infected patients were cured or discharged was 224 in Kerala on the same day. The latest numbers were published by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
While no other state reported COVID-19 related deaths, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Karnataka reported 13, 11, and 9 new cases each. In total, the country reported 341 new cases on Tuesday, with the number of active cases at 2311.
On Monday, Kerala Health MInister Veena George had condemned the “attempt to cause unwanted fear over rising COVID cases.” She wrote, “After seeing a slight increase in the number of Covid cases in November, the Health Department had issued proper precautionary measures and carried out preparatory work. It was decided ] in the ministerial meeting to send the samples for whole genomic testing. Samples have been sent for whole genomic testing since November. The JN.1 variant was detected in only one such sample. It was reported in a 79-year-old from Karakulam, Thiruvananthapuram who has been cured after home treatment.”
She also pointed out that 15 persons who travelled from India to Singapore were reported to have the JN.1 variant in the last month. “It means that this covid variant is also present in other states of India. The peculiarity is that it was found through testing in Kerala. It was discovered due to the excellence of the systems in Kerala and due to the vigilance. The health department had done proper preparatory work in this regard,” the Minister said.
Kerala conducts between 700 to 1000 COVID-19 tests daily, and the state also reports the highest testing rate in the country. On December 16, Kerala had reported four COVID-19 deaths.