The district witnessed a massive spike in COVID-19 cases on Saturday with 485 testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, the highest single-day count to be reported in Thiruvananthapuram.
A small respite, however, was that the district also registered its highest number recoveries from COVID-19 on a single day with as many as 777 people testing negative. There were currently 3,022 people being treated for the disease in the district.
Among the new COVID-19 cases, as many as 468 have been attributed to local transmission. The source of infection in 33 of them are unknown. Seven health workers have also been infected.
The coastal belt continued to witness a resurgence of COVID-19 cases after a lull as was the trend in the last few days. A bulk of the cases that were reported on Saturday were from the critical containment zones.
The coastal hamlet of Anjuthengu appeared to be the worst hit with 125 people including the panchayat president and two other members testing positive from among 476 people who were subjected to antigen tests on the day. The total number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 in the region since Thursday is 302 while as many as 1,270 people were tested during the period.
With the Anjuthengu grama panchayat president testing positive, Attingal municipal chairman M. Pradeep, the chairman of the health standing committee, municipal secretary, and a few others officials who had taken part in a cremation along with the former on Friday went into self-quarantine for seven days. The Anjuthengu grama panchayat president had also visited the municipal office in connection with conducting the final rites of an Anjuthengu native in the municipality crematorium.
During his briefing, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said rising incidence of cases necessitated the extension of stringent containment efforts. He added that the trend could not be interpreted as a failure of the triple lockdown imposed in the State capital. However, pointing out that there has been a let-up in containment measures, he said it could take more time to salvage the situation from worsening any further.
Attack on Pulluvila FLTC
Mr. Vijayan also minced no words when he criticised the attack of a COVID first-line treatment centre (FLTC) at Pulluvila on Saturday. Referring to the demands made to close down the facility, the Chief Minister said that it was not up to the public to decide where FLTCs should be established.
“Such treatment centres have been found to be necessary all over. They should not be seen as centres that could lead to a proliferation of COVID-19, but those meant to counter such a possibility. The public must refrain from falling prey to falsehoods propagated by a minority. Attacks as these are the most heinous crime meted out to the society,” he said.
