Kerala has reported one death and 62 new virus cases on Friday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said adding among the infected two are Air India crew and two prisoners and a health worker. Among 1,150 total cases, 577 are active and more than 1,24,000 are under observation in the state.
A 65-year-old man, who returned from the middle-east, last week died in Kottayam on Friday taking the death toll to 9. An acute diabetic, he was on ventilator for last two days. The CM said the state expected a sharp rise in cases with the return of expatriates and people stranded in other parts of the country and there was no need of panic on this count.
The CM reiterated that the state has got best recovery and lowest mortality rates in the country and its testing rates were in commensurate with new cases and infection rate. “When you test 100 people in the state 1.7 are testing negative whereas in the country it is 5 per cent. And the fatality rate is 0.5. We are going by the directive of the Indian Council of Medical Research,” he said dispelling doubts over low rate of tests in the state. Recently many from the opposition had questioned the state’s low testing rate.
While Kerala had conducted 62, 746 tests as on Friday its neighbours Karnataka and Tamil had done at least five to six times more tests than it. But the CM maintained that the state’s records are best. “Out of 577 active cases only 45 people got infected from others. Local spreading rate is less than 10 per cent. That is why we are saying that no community transmission took place in the state,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}While Kerala had conducted 62, 746 tests as on Friday its neighbours Karnataka and Tamil had done at least five to six times more tests than it. But the CM maintained that the state’s records are best. “Out of 577 active cases only 45 people got infected from others. Local spreading rate is less than 10 per cent. That is why we are saying that no community transmission took place in the state,” he said.
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