Kerala reports single-day highest spike with 42 cases

40 of these cases are returnees from other States and abroad, two persons recover from COVID-19

May 22, 2020 09:14 pm | Updated May 23, 2020 10:37 am IST - Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala on Friday reported its single-day highest spike in COVID-19 cases, with 42 persons testing positive for SARS-CoV-2.

While 40 of these cases were returnees from other States and abroad, two persons developed the disease through “contact” with known/unknown sources of infection.

However, even as the State is bracing itself for a major surge in the coming days, it is taking a conscious stand to welcome all its people home, fully confident that with the right precaution and aggressive containment measures, the crisis could be managed, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

Everyone would be taken care of and the best of medical treatment would be offered, he said.

The focus now would be in improving intensive management of serious COVID-19 disease as the number of people with severe disease would go up in the coming days, he said.

Of the 40 returnees, 17 are expatriates from foreign countries and 23 are from other States, especially Maharashtra.

Kannur reported 12 cases; Kasaragod seven; Palakkad and Kozhikode five each; Thrissur and Malappuram four each; two from Kottayam; and one case each was reported in Kollam, Pathanamthitta and Wayanad.

Of the two ‘contact’ cases, one is a health worker in Kozhikode. The other case is in Kannur.

Two persons have recovered from the disease.

Kerala has so far reported 732 cases of COVID-19, of which, 216 persons are currently undergoing treatment. A total of 512 persons have so far recovered from the disease.

The number of people under surveillance has increased to 84,258. Of these, 83,649 are on either home or institutional quarantine, while 609 are admitted in hospitals.

Till date, Kerala has tested samples from 51,310 persons, of which, 49,535 samples have been negative. Of the 7,072 sentinel surveillance samples that were collected from select groups in the community and sent for testing, 6,630 have been negative.

The Chief Minister said that people returning to Kerala would have to undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine. He, however, clarified that this stipulation would be for those persons who are coming to Kerala to stay for a while.

No curbs for business trip

“For people travelling to Kerala for a day for business purposes, the government will not insist on 14-day quarantine. They can come into the State by ensuring that they follow all the safety precautions that our Health Department insists on,” he said.

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