No fresh COVID-19 case has been reported in Kerala on Sunday. This is the second time after March 3, when Pathanamthitta district recorded positive cases in a family that had returned from Italy, that zero cases have been reported in Kerala, the first being May 1. As a result, the total confirmed cases in Kerala stands arrested just one short of 500.
Put together, the number of new cases in the last four days reads like the ongoing year: 2020.
Nonetheless, four more hotspots have been added to the list of the existing 80 ones. Mananthavady municipality has been named as a hotspot, the first region to be designated so in Wayanad that saw a positive case on May 2 after nearly a month.
Ernakulam, which at the moment does not have any active case, has two new hotspots: Edakattuvayal and Manjalloor panchayats. In fact, in Edakkattuvayal four suspected persons had tested negative on Sunday. Sources said both the panchayats were designated as hotspots because they border Idukki district.
As for Idukki, which now has 12 active cases, it has a new hotspot in Santhanpara panchayat. Santhanpara, too, has no new cases but borders Tamil Nadu.
Recovery, too, is nearly static, with only one person turning negative on the day; the cured person a Kasaragod native undergoing treatment in Kannur. This brings down the number of active cases in Kasaragod to six. The total active cases in Kerala is now 95. With Sunday's recovery, the number of recovered in Kerala is 401, which is 80.36 per cent of the total confirmed cases in the state.
Of the 32,217 samples sent for testing till now, including the samples taken as part of augmented surveillance, 31,611 or over 98 per cent of them have turned up negative results.
Apart from this, 2391 samples of high-risk individuals (healthcare workers and those with high social exposure like policemen and local body representatives) were also tested till now. 1683, or 70.39 per cent, of them have been negative.
Augmented surveillance, done to check community transmission, has till now spotted just three positive cases. Top health officials see in this a sign that the feared community transmission has not taken place in Kerala. However, the status of 14 samples that were sent for re-confirmation continues to be vague.
Now that Kerala has effectively reined in the spread of virus from people who had returned from foreign countries and their immediate contacts, it has braced itself for the new challenge: the post-lockdown return of is citizens from foreign lands, and also from other states.
Over 5 lakh Malayalis in foreign lands, mostly in the Gulf, have registered with the Norka website for their return. In the case of Malayalis in other states, over 1.30 lakh have already registered.
The plan is to put the returnees through a thorough health screening at the airports and check-posts, and then, in the case of those with no symptoms, insist on home quarantine, and shift those with more than mild symptoms to government-run isolation centres.
Already 26,999 buildings, with the capacity to hold over 2.5 lakh beds adequately spaced apart, have been identified for the purpose. These would include hostels, auditoriums, wedding halls and even sports stadiums like Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Kochi and Chandrasekharan Nair stadium in Thiruvananthapuram.
