There has been a sharp fall in new cases on Sunday, just 118, compared to previous days. But Sunday was also the 10th consecutive day Kerala saw over 100 fresh COVID-19 cases. And in these 10 days, Kerala has accumulated 1,395 cases at nearly 140 cases a day.
By now 3,48,237 (nearly 3.50 lakh) non-residents, both from abroad and other states, have returned. Those found infected among them were 3572, or 1.02 per cent. If we assume that five lakh more non-residents would arrive in the next two months, Kerala will have to absorb another 5100 cases.
At the moment, Kerala looks eminently prepared to handle the situation. The 29 COVID hospitals and 29 COVID first-line treatment centres already in operation in all the 14 districts together have 8537 beds, 872 ICU beds and 482 ventilators for COVID patients alone.
Even if things get unbelievably out of hand, Kerala is ready. It has already identified 141 additional first-line treatment centres, and in all of these, there will be a total of 15,975 beds.
On June 28, there are 2611 COVID-19 patients in hospitals. Experts say that at the current recovery rate of 40-50 cases on an average per day, these beds would be enough to absorb even the worst surge in cases.
Now that antibody tests have begun at the airports, it is also possible to identify and isolate suspect cases the moment foreign returnees land. These cases will not reach home for room quarantine and instead will be removed to hospitals or first-line treatment centres. Such a move will effectively cut off transmission even at the primary level.
On June 27, for instance, antibody tests were done on 1,741 returnees and 194, or 11.14 per cent, were found with antibodies. All of them were shifted to COVID Care centres. Earlier, they would have gone straight home for room quarantine.
The focus, therefore, will have to be on community transmission. Experts say ramping up tests was the only way to sense the local spread and initiate quick action.
Disguised cases can be harmful. Individuals who have contracted the virus from unknown sources are turning out to be bigger transmitters of the virus. A healthcare worker in Kottayam, picked up by sentinel surveillance, has now infected four in her family: her husband, her three and six-year-old daughters, and her mother-in-law were declared positive today.
Here's the district-wise break-up of today's cases:
Kannur - 26
Thrissur - 17
Kollam - 10
Alappuzha - 10
Thiruvananthapuram - 9
Ernakulam - 7
Kozhikode - 7
Kasaragod - 6
Kottayam - 5
Malappuram - 5
Wayanad - 5
Idukki - 4
Palakkad - 4
Pathanamthitta - 3
Of the 118 cases, 68 had come from abroad. Of them, Nineteen are from Kuwait alone. The others are from UAE - 15, Oman - 13, Saudi Arabia - 10, Qatar - 4, Bahrain - 4, Nigeria - 2 and Ghana - 1.
Thirty-six came from other states. Karnataka-10, Delhi-7, Maharashtra-7, Tamil Nadu-5, Telangana-2, Chhattisgarh-2, Jammu and Kashmir-1, Rajasthan-1 and Gujarat-1.
Fourteen contracted the disease through contact. They include five private hospital employees in Malappuram district. The others include four from Kottayam district and one each from Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Thrissur, Kannur and Palakkad districts.
Recoveries:
Fourty-two persons were cured of the disease.
Here's the district-wise break-up of today's recoveries:
Kozhikode - 7
Idukki - 6
Alappuzha - 5
Kottayam - 5
Thrissur - 5
Kasaragod - 5
Palakkad - 3
Pathanamthitta - 2
Thiruvananthapuram - 2
Ernakulam - 2
As many as 1,75,734 people are under observation in various districts. Of them, 1,73,123 are under home-quarantine and 2,611 are in hospitals.
A total of 335 people were admitted in hospitals on Sunday.
So far, 2,20,821 samples (including the augmented sample) have been sent for testing. In addition, as part of Sentinel Surveillance, 45,592 samples were collected from priority groups, such as health workers, guest workers, social contacts. Of them, 43,842 have returned negative.
District-wise details:
A day after reporting 47 cases, fresh cases in Malappuram came down to just five on Sunday. Though the figure looks meagre, what's worrying is the fact that all the five are healthcare personnel in two private hospitals in Vattamkulam and Edappal panchayats. The details of the cases had come out earlier in the day. The cases were detected as part of the sentinel surveillance being done on high-risk groups to check for community transmission.
On June 27 midnight, five healthcare workers in the area
were also declared positive; two doctors and two staff nurses of Sukapuram Hospital in Vattamkulam and one doctor in Edapal Hospital. Both are popular hospitals in the area, and one of the doctors is a sought-after paediatrician.
Complicating matters, a quick initial assessment has found that the five who were declared positive a day earlier had not visited any of the two hospitals.
Seventeen cases were confirmed in Thrissur. The patients include two BSF soldiers and a woman councillor of Chalakudy municipality. An employee of the municipality had tested positive earlier. The councillor is suspected to have come in contact with the employee.
Thiruvananthapuram reported nine cases. Seven of them are returnees from the Gulf and one is an army officer who returned from Jammu and Kashmir on June 19. A 50-yea-old woman of Puthenthopp, Vallakakdav, contracted the disease through contact. She was in the primary contact list of a person who had tested positive earlier.
Seven cases were reported in Ernakulam -- four from abroad and three from other states. The district authorities were preparing the contact list of a 20-year-old Thrissur native who tested positive on Saturday. Seven people have been identified and quarantined.
Of the seven cases in Kozhikode, five are Gulf returnees and two from Chennai and Bengaluru. The patients include a seven-year-old girl of Ayancheri. She had returned from Qatar on June 18 along with her mother. The girl's swab was tested after her mother tested positive earlier.
Of the 10 cases in Alappuzha, seven came from abroad and two from Delhi. A 55-year-old woman at Chengannur contracted the disease through contact. Her husband, a Kuwait returnee, had tested positive on June 23.
In Kasaragod, six tested positive -- five from abroad and one from Maharashtra.
Of the five new cases reported in Kottayam, four contracted the disease through contact. All the four are close relatives of a female staffer of a private hospital in Ponkunnam who had tested positive on June 26. She hails from Pallikkathode. The husband (37), two daughters, aged six and three, and the mother-in-law (67) of the woman have tested positive. The fifth patient is a 26-year-old woman at Karikkattoor. She returned from Mumbai on June 19 and was admitted to Kanjirappally General Hospital.
Palakkad also reported a contact case as a 15-year-old boy at Peroor, Lakkidi, tested positive. He is the sixth person in his family to contract the disease. The teenager's grandmother tested positive on June 9. His two siblings tested positive on June 15. The next day, his parents also tested positive. His father had returned from Coimbatore.
Other districts
Wayanad -- Three from abroad and two from other states
Idukki -- Three from abroad and one from Delhi
Pathanamthitta -- One from Oman, two from Telangana
Kollam -- Eight from abroad and two from other states
Hotspots
Thirteen more regions have been converted into hotspots.
The new hotspots are Kottayam Municipality (Containment Zone: ward 36), Pallikkathode (8), and Karukachal (7) in Kottayam district; Vattakkulam (all wards), Edappal (all wards), Alankode (all wards), Ponnani Municipality (all except 1, 2, 3, 50, 51 wards), Maranchery (all wards), and Pulppatta (7) in Malappuram; Aroor (1) and Chennithala (14) in Alappuzha; Parakkadavu (8) and Kochi Coroporation (67) in Ernakulam.
There are currently 124 hotspots in the state.
