After registering over 1,000 COVID-19 cases for two consecutive days, the State breathed a sigh of relief on Friday, when the daily case tally showed a slight dip, registering 885 cases.
The relief is the recovery rate which exceeds the number of positive cases. On Friday, the number of recoveries was 968.
However, local transmission continues unabated, with 753 out of the 885 new cases being locally acquired infections and 56 of which have no epidemiological link.
The number of health-care workers who tested positive on Friday was 24.
Four deaths
Four deaths were reported on Friday, two of which were from Kasaragod and the others from Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha, taking the toll to 54. The total case burden of the State now is 16,995, of which the active cases or the number of patients currently in hospitals number 9,371.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that despite the slight decline in cases, the epidemic situation across the State merited serious concern. The spread of COVID-19 in several care homes and convents in Ernakulam district is an emerging issue which required serious attention.
A flare up in transmission can result in huge number of deaths amongst the elderly and infirm in care homes, as it happened in the U.K., where COVID-19 was responsible for over 16,000 deaths in care homes in a matter of days.
Tests done in a care home at Thrikkakara found 40 positive cases amongst the 135 occupants.
Mr. Vijayan said that no visitors would be allowed to care homes and that trips outside by care home officials would have to be restricted. The government has decided to convert some of these care homes as COVID First Line Treatment Centres with medical care round-the-clock so that the inmates would not have to be taken outside for care.
Situation in capital
The capital district of Thiruvananthapuram, where 161 out of the 167 cases reported on Friday were through local transmission, continues to be a hot bed of disease transmission. The five major clusters in the coastal area here continue to have intense disease transmission and dangerously spreading to more coastal hamlets.
Mr. Vijayan said the test positivity rate at Pulluvila cluster was 42.92, with 288 out of the 671 tests turning out to be positive for COVID-19.
