T’PURAM/KOCHI/ALAPPUZHA: Kerala witnessed a huge surge in Covid-19 cases on Tuesday with the daily tally crossing the 600-mark for the first time. While local transmission accounted for 396 of the 608 new cases, the source of infection of 26 people remained unknown.Cautioning that Covid clusters have started forming in various parts, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the third phase of Covid spread has begun. He warned the next stage was community transmission and admitted that the state would be able to control the pandemic only by the end of this year.
“The third stage will witness the disease spreading in clusters, that is among a group of people in a particular area. We are already seeing formation of clusters in Malappuram, Thiruvananthapuram and other districts. So, we have to be careful to prevent the next stage, which is community transmission,” he said during the daily briefing.
The situation in Thiruvananthapuram continued to be grim with 177 of the day’s 201 new patients contracting the virus through local transmission. Thirty-three areas in the district have been declared containment zones.In Ernakulam district, Chellanam continues to be a cause for concern. As many as 20 of the 58 local spread cases reported in the district on Tuesday were from the coastal village. The district reported 70 new cases.
Kayamkulam market cluster becoming super-spread area
While Hibi Eden, MP, alleged the government was hiding the exact number of positive cases in Chellanam (Kochi), Agriculture Minister V S Sunilkumar, who is in charge of the Covid control activities in Kochi, said a first-line treatment centre with 10,000 beds would be set up in the area. Meanwhile, Kayamkulam market cluster is becoming a super-spread area in Alappuzha. Fourteen contacts of the vegetable vendor tested positive on Tuesday. Sixty people were infected from the market cluster and the number is increasing daily.
State’s Covid toll goes up to 34
Kerala’s Covid toll went up to 34 on Tuesday. The swab samples of Nazeer Usmankutty, 50, from Chunakkara, who died on Monday morning, tested positive on Tuesday.
70 cases reported in Ernakulam on Tuesday