Kerala has the highest COVID-19 patient recovery rate in the country at 56.33%, with 218 out of its 387 patients so far recovering from the disease.
The State is making great progress in testing and will expand the facilities further, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said while briefing media here on Wednesday.
For the past one week, the State has been registering more cases of recovery than new positive cases. On Wednesday, there was just one positive case, while the number of patients who recovered was seven.
Lone case
The lone positive case was from Kannur, who had contracted the disease through contact with an imported case.
So far, the State has reported 387 cases, of which 167 are currently undergoing treatment. Of the 387 cases, 264 are persons who came from abroad or other States, eight are foreigners who contracted the disease and 114 are contacts of imported cases of infection.
The number of cases reported by districts are as follows: Alappuzha 5, Ernakulam 21, Idukki 10, Kannur 80, Kasaragod 167, Kollam 9, Kottayam 3, Kozhikode 16, Malappuram 21, Palakkad 8, Pathanamthitta 17, Thiruvananthapuram 14, Thrissur 13 and Wayanad 3.
The number of persons under surveillance has dwindled to 97,464, with 96,942 persons in home quarantine and 522 in isolation wards in hospitals. Kerala has so far tested 16,475 persons, of whom, 16,002 turned out to be negative.
Kerala reported the country’s first three COVID-19 cases, all returnees from Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the deadly disease, but they are among those recovered. The death toll due to the disease remained at mere two in the State.
Mr. Vijayan said disinfectant tunnels, which sanitised people by spraying a fine mist of sodium hypochlorite, were unscientific and that these should not be allowed to continue. He said solid waste management was once again becoming a patchy affair in the midst of the pandemic and that it should not be so. He appreciated the restraint shown by people in complying with the lockdown restrictions.
He said the State had made special arrangements at 21 places in districts for cancer follow-up care in association with the Regional Cancer Centre, so that the immuno-compromised cancer patients are spared the hassles of travel.
Tourists booked
Meanwhile, 17 foreign tourists were booked for allegedly bathing in the sea off the famous Kovalam beach here in violation of the lockdown regulations on Wednesday, agencies report. Cases have also been registered against the owners and managers of five hotels where the tourists have been staying since March 22 due to the lockdown, the police said.
The tourists who hailed from various countries, including the U.K., Canada and France, had taken bath in the sea on Tuesday despite the orders banning such activities.
