With 434 cases, Thiruvananthapuram district gives Kerala the jitters again

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The capital district seems to be slipping out of control of health authorities not just because it is  recording the highest daily Covid-19 cases but also for the fact that almost all of them are being infected through local transmission. As many as 428 (98 per cent) of the 434 persons who were confirmed with Covid-19 on Thursday were infected this way.

At the same time, the state recorded its highest single-day spike of 1,564 new cases and 1,380 of them were infected through local spread, which is also a record.“What the statistics point to is the serious situation prevailing in Thiruvananthapuram. As many as 13 local bodies are witnessing an increase cases. When one looks at the Covid-19 cluster distribution map, the district has more red marks than others,” said an official of the health department.

Of the 1,380 new patients who were infected,locally, the sources of infection of 98 remain unknown. The infected include 60 returnees from overseas, 100 from other states, 15 healthcare workers, five ITBP personnel in Alappuzha and four staffers of INHS Sanjeevani. A total of 766 people got recovered during the day.

The death of three more persons was confirmed to be because of Covid-19, taking the state’s death toll to 129. They were Lizzie Sajan, 55, of Thiruvananthapuram, Radhakrishnan, 80, of Kozhikode and Abdul Rahman, 63, of Malappuram.