THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the fourth time in the month, the state reported no new cases of Covid-19 on a day. Also, the number of districts that now have no active cases of Covid-19 rose to eight as Kottayam and Pathanamthitta joined the list on Wednesday. A total of seven persons recovered from the illness from these districts on the day. The number of active cases in the state is 30.
“Overall it’s a day of relief. Active cases have come down. The number of people under surveillance has also come down. Only six districts have active cases. No additional hotspot areas were identified in the state,” said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The chief minister said instead of remaining cautious against the virus, some irresponsible behaviour is still evident in society as there are cases of lockdown violations, laxity in following instructions and others. He also brought the issue of not following social distancing at public spaces.
In the case of testing of samples, the chief minister said till date, 34,599 samples (including augmented samples) have been sent for testing, out of which 34,063 turned negative. In addition to this, as part of sentinel surveillance, 2,947 samples were taken from priority groups who have high social exposure and of these 2,147 samples tested negative.
Entry via Nadukani: Govt to take up matter with K’taka
T’Puram: Following demands that entry to the state should be permitted via Nadukani, the state government will take up the matter with Karnataka. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said calls in this regard have been made from people of the region. “As per the complaints, those proceeding to Malappuram from Ootty or Karnataka need to travel around 150km. Efforts are being made to address the issue by getting in touch with the Karnataka Government,” he said.
Pinarayi said in view of the long queue of vehicles coming from other states at Walayar, directives have been issued to speed up vehicle checks. Goods movement is also returning to normal, with 2,225 trucks crossing the border on Tuesday. The police gave away 4.44 lakh food packets and 29,030 grocery kits during the lockdown. “Three lakh people have come forward to donate blood as part of Jeevadhara initiative by Student Police Cadets,” he said.