THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state witnessed the biggest single-day spike of 84 Covid-19 positive cases on Thursday, even as an expert committee asked the government to take adequate steps assuming that community transmission had already occurred. However, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan once again said community transmission has not happened so far but warned that the situation could change.
The chief minister, in his media briefing, said while there is an upward trend in cases, the encouraging report is that people contracting the disease through contact is comparatively low in the state. In a report presented to the chief minister on Wednesday, the expert committee on Covid-19 said it could not be confirmed that community transmission has not occurred in the state, and called for widening the ambit of testing to rule out the same.
Of the 84 new cases reported in the state on Thursday, 79 were returnees — 31 from abroad and 48 from other states — while five contracted the virus through contact. Three persons from recovered from the illness on the day. Meanwhile, a Telangana native, who was under surveillance after testing positive, died in Thiruvananthapuram. The deceased, Anchayya, 68, and his five family members had arrived here after boarding the Jaipur-Thiruvananthapuram train by mistake.
While Kasaragod accounted for 18 of the new cases, the remaining were from Palakkad (16), Kannur (10), Malappuram (8), Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur (seven each), Pathanamthitta and Kozhikode (six each), Kottayam (three) and Kollam, Alappuzha and Idukki (one each). With this, the total number of active cases in the state rose to 526. The chief minister said those circulating fake news on social media about people in home quarantine will be dealt with firmly.
“The police have been directed to charge them under non-bailable sections. The Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode cyberdomes have been asked to take initiate necessary actions in such cases,” he said. Six more places have been declared hotspots in the state, taking the total number to 82.