Thiruvananthapuram: The COVID-19 pandemic shows no sign of abating even a year after rearing its ugly head. The increasing Test Positivity Rate (TPR) in Kerala signals the grim reality of a likely second COVID-19 wave.
After a lull, the TRP crossed six per cent to touch 6.2% on Sunday, with the State reporting 2,802 SARS-CoV-2 positive cases out of the 45,171 samples tested.
The TPR had dipped below 6% during the second half of February in Kerala, which reported the country’s first COVID-19 case on January 30, 2020.
(Test Positivity Rate or TPR denotes the percentage of people who test positive for the coronavirus among those overall who have been tested.)
Among those who tested positive on Sunday, 132 had come from outside the State, while 2,446 caught the virus through contact. The source of infection in 208 people were not identified.
As many as 2,173 people recovered from the viral infection, even as 10 more deaths reported on Sunday took the toll to 4,656.
Last week the central government had warned that the coronavirus situation was "turning from bad to worse" and was a huge cause of worry, especially for some states.
"We are facing an increasingly severe and intense situation, more so surely in some districts. But the whole country is potentially at risk and therefore all efforts to contain and save lives should be taken. Hospital and ICU preparations have to be readied. If the cases increase rapidly, the healthcare system would be overwhelmed," NITI Aayog member (Health) V K Paul had said last Tuesday.
All states and Union Territories are reporting a surge in cases and there is a need to significantly and exponentially increase the number of COVID-19 tests. The proportion of RT-PCR tests need to be increased too, union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had said while issuing the alert.
