Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government has decided to conduct widespread anti-body tests to determine the extent of community spread of COVID-19 even as the state recorded its first 100-plus new cases for a day.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the state’s COVID-19 numbers indicated a strong possibility of community spread occurring in Kerala, which called for an appropriate response.
The number of new cases recorded on Friday was an ominous 111, giving an indication of the hard struggle that lies ahead in the state’s fight against the dreaded disease.
Palakkad district alone had 40 new cases, the highest number for any district so far, followed by Malappuram with 18 and Pathanamthitta with 11. Of the new cases, 50 were on account of people coming from abroad while 48 were from amongst those coming from other states.
The state has received 14,000 kits for anti-body tests and another 40,000 units are expected to be delivered in the next three days. The plan is to hold 15,000 tests per week. If the tests turn out to be positive more PCR tests will be performed on the affected people.
The objective of the tests is to see whether there has been any community spread – something that is different from infection caused through contacts. The state had 10 new cases of infection from contacts on Friday.
What has been causing greater worry to the health authorities is the increase in the number of infections, which cannot be traced back to a source. There have been about three dozen cases where the source of infection could not be traced.
This is what has prompted the decision to hold widespread anti-body tests. This will be done on a random basis.
The Chief Minister said that with the addition of chartered flights, another one lakh people are expected to be brought from abroad, putting a huge burden on the state’s anti-COVID-19 programme. So far, only around 30,000 people have come in from other countries. A majority of them are from the United Arab Emirates – a heavily infected country.
Over 1.46 lakh people have arrived from other states, of which 63% have come from hot spot states such as Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Among those coming from other states, the largest number of infections were reported from amongst people coming from Maharashtra.
The state government has issued detailed guidelines for the reopening of places of worship, shopping malls and restaurants, based on the central government directives. The Chief Minister has been holding discussions with religious and community leaders on the safeguards to be followed when the places of worship are reopened on June 8.
All protocols, including social distancing and restriction in the total number of worshipers who can congregate at any given time, will be strictly followed the Chief Minister said.
