THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The capital district – Thiruvananthapuram – has emerged as the hotbed of SARS-CoV-2 in the state as it turned out that while conducting 18 tests one turns positive. While the state average is one out of 36 tests, the national average is one out of 12. At the same time, for the fourth time in the month, the active cases reported in a day crossed the 1,000 mark with Tuesday recording 1,167 cases. While the total cases surpassed the 20,000 mark and stands at 20, 894, the active cases crossed the 10,000 mark and stands at 10,093. Contact transmission cases also recorded its highest ever mark with the day recording 888 such cases.
“To identify infected persons a special surveillance mechanism has also been set up here. At the state level, it turned out that marriage and funeral functions were becoming places of infection transmission. In some areas, marriage clusters have also been formed. To corroborate it several incidents are also being reported,” said Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister.
Answering a question on whether the lockdown is affecting the livelihood of many, the he said that it is one of the biggest challenges that the government is facing. According to him, though measures for containing infection transmission can’t be ruled out, the government is envisioning a ‘new normal scenario’ where all could continue their work by strictly adhering to Covid protocol.
WHO guidelines in death classification
Referring to news reports that the government is not including certain deaths into the tally of Covid deaths, the CM said that the state is following the WHO guidelines for Certification and Classification of Covid-19 as cause of death. According to the CM, it’s the expert committee of the health department which will take a final word on Covid deaths.