THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The number of active Covid-19 patients in the state has surged past the 75,000-mark with the daily cases reaching 9,258 on Friday.
Four districts in the state have over 1000 people turning Covid-19 on a single day. The 20 deaths due to Covid-19 on Friday took the total toll to 791. At present, the test positive rate is 15 per cent which indicated the high rate of Covid-19 spread in the state.
Among the new patients, 8,274 got the disease through local transmission while the history of contact of 657 remains unknown.
In view of the seriousness of the spread, the government has announced the use of emergency crowd controlling provisions under section 144 of the Criminal Procedures Code from Saturday. Under the rule, a gathering of more than five people at a time is not allowed.
The gatherings at weddings and funerals will be exempted from the tougher norms, said the order, adding the existing limit of 50 and 20 persons, respectively, at these functions will be strictly enforced. The restriction will come into effect at 9 am on Saturday and remain until October 31 midnight.