The Kerala government has decided to increase its daily COVID-19 testing. According to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, from July, 15,000 samples will be tested every day.
“In the last 24 hours, Kerala has tested 5,240 samples. The number of tests will be increased step by step, and from July, we will be able to test 15,000 samples per day,” Pinarayi Vijayan said on Thursday following the daily review meeting held to analyse the pandemic situation in the state.
At present, Kerala is testing more than 3,000 samples per day and till date, the state has tested 1,56,401 samples.
The Chief Minister also added that the number of people COVID-19 cases is 109 per million population. “We have managed to maintain the sample positivity rate (the number of samples tested positive) at 1. 8%. Internationally, countries strive to keep the positivity rate below 2%,” CM said.
However, considering the number of samples being tested by the state until the past month, Kerala’s testing rate had been lower compared to other south Indian states, except Telangana, and even the national average.
Meanwhile, though Kerala has been witnessing a continuous rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the past several days, the Chief Minister claimed that there are only a few cases whose source of infection has not been found yet.
“Experts have asked us to strengthen our vigil. Out of the positive cases reported from the state, there is no disease transmission from 93% of the COVID-19 patients. Disease transmission has happened only from 7% of the patients so far. This is because of our strong home quarantine measures. We have to follow it strictly as more people are coming from abroad these days,” said Pinarayi Vijayan.
The CM also added that out of the 22 people who have lost their lives due to pandemic, 20 persons had comorbidities. (The state government figure continues to exclude the death of Mahi native who died in Kozhikode district.)
With 123 people turning positive for SARS-CoV-2 on Thursday, 1,761 patients are currently under treatment in Kerala. A total of 3,676 people have so far tested positive for coronavirus, of this 1,935 people have recovered.
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