Expatriates and Non-Resident Keralites from other States made up almost all of the 29 positive cases of COVID-19 reported in Kerala on Monday, as it has been since May 7 when NoRKs began returning home.
While 21 of the new positive cases were people who returned from the UAE and other Gulf nations and the Maldives, seven were those who came from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. One lone case of infection was picked up from the community by a health-care worker in Kannur .
Six of the cases were in Kollam, four in Thrissur, three each in Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur, two each in Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Kozhikode, and Kasaragod, and one case each was in Ernakaulam, Palakkad, and Malappuram districts.
The total number of COVID-19 patients under treatment in hospitals has gone up to 130. Of the total 630 cases reported till date, 497 have recovered.
The number of people under surveillance in the State has seen a jump in the past two days. On Sunday, if 13,000-odd people came under the surveillance net, on Monday, another 5,000 plus people were added.
The total number in quarantine in the State is 67,789 now, which is expected to swell in the coming days as more people from outside the State are expected to arrive. However, only 473 have been admitted in isolation wards in hospitals while the rest are all in home or institutional quarantine.
Till, date, Kerala has tested samples from 45,905 persons, of which, 44,681 have returned a negative result.
As part of sentinel surveillance, a crop of samples are being collected from select groups in the population on a random basis daily and tested for the past three weeks. Of the 5,154 samples tested so far, 5,082 samples were negative.
Hotspots
On Monday, six more regions in the State were added on to the hotspot list taking the number to 29. The new additions are Kalluvathukkal in Kollam and Kadambazhipuram, Muthuthala, Karakkurissi, Kottayi, and Muthalamada in Palakkad.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan reiterated that reverse quarantine has to be maintained strictly and that senior citizens, pregnant women, children below 10 years and those with chronic illnesses should not leave home unless in an emergency.
He said that the COVID-19 cases were expected to climb in the State once expatriates started returning home. While the State was engaged in a stringent exercise of quarantining, testing and treating them. Local transmission can be prevented only if home quarantine was maintained strictly.
He said that society, neighbours and the local self-government bodies should take up the task of ensuring that those in home quarantine do not violate the norms.
The State was up against tough times but the situation can be managed if the universal safety precautions are followed strictly by everyone, he added.
