Thiruvananthapuram: With COVID-19 cases continuing to be on the higher side, the high-level expert committee, appointed by Kerala Government, has recommended the health department to scale up the daily testing to 1 lakh.
The panel has also urged the government to replace the new software which was responsible for the recent slide in testing and go back to the old system. The state had witnessed a slide of nearly 20 per cent in the number of tests after the introduction of the new software.
The committee has warned that at a time when the infection is spreading at a higher rate, reducing the number of testing due to software issues could result in grave problems for the state.
Though the Lab Diagnostic Management System used in place of 'Healthmon' software is highly effective, there is delay in uploading the information. Therefore the emphasis should be on increasing the number of tests identifying maximum number COVID-19 infected people, the panel suggested.
The state on Sunday reported 7631 new cases of COVID-19, taking the total number of infected persons to 3,41,859, which is roughly 1 per cent of the total population of Kerala.
The other states with 1 per cent infected persons of their total population are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi. On Sunday 58,404 samples were tested in the state. The test positivity rate has come down to 13.07 per cent.
Last rites for COVID-19 victims
Meanwhile, the government is actively considering the demand coming from various religious and social organizations to allow funerals with religious rites for people dying due to COVID-19 infections.
The government is considering granting relaxation for permitting religious rites at the time of funeral by strictly complying with the COVID-19 safety protocol. At various places the health department has given permission for performing the last rites of COVID-19 victims according to their respective religious beliefs.
However, the religious organizations have urged the government to issue a specific direction in this regard.
Higher Education and Minority Affairs Minister K T Jaleel had brought the matter to the notice of Health Minister K K Shailaja recently.
Earlier, the high-level expert group had asked the government to direct the medical board to prepare specific guidelines for the funeral of the people dying due to COVID-19.
A decision on the issue is expected to be taken at the review meeting this week.
