THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It seems Onam has affected sample collection, testing and the number of Covid-19 cases.
In the past three days, the daily case tally stood below the 2,000-mark and the comparatively low testing of samples is being cited as a reason for this.
Also, for the third day in a row, recoveries surpassed fresh cases.
The state recorded 1,547 new cases and 2,129 recoveries on Wednesday. The official Covid toll crossed the 300-mark with seven new deaths.
“Testing has indeed gone down in the past three days. Onam festivities had a role to play in it. Though there is no shortage of staff for collection and testing the samples, people, mainly those without symptoms, were reluctant to reach testing centres in the three days,” said a health department officer, adding that sample collection and testing will go up from Thursday.
The data shows there were days in the past one week when 41,860 samples were collected and 40,352 samples were tested in 24 hours.
A slump was first reported on August 30 as 27,908 samples were tested on the day. On August 31, 18,027 samples were tested.
September began with the lowest samples tested in the past one month at 14,137. However, the numbers improved on Wednesday with 23,850 samples tested.
Meanwhile, triggering concerns about the severity of Covid transmission, an assessment by the department showed that in 11 districts, the test positivity rate (TPR) is above 5%.
What is worrying is that of them, four districts have TPR at 10% or above.