RT-PCR negative certificate not mandatory for visitors from other states if fully vaccinated

covid test
Those who have received both doses of vaccination need not undergo 14-day quarantine after arrival.

Thiruvananthapuram: The State government has relaxed its RT-PCR norms for people reaching Kerala from other states.

As per the latest order issued on Friday, visitors who have taken both doses of COVID-19 vaccination need not produce an RT-PCR negative certificate.

The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority has made it not mandatory for visitors two have RT-PCR negative certificates. Hence, they will not be required to undergo a previously mandatory 14-day quarantine after arrival.

However, those with symptoms of COVID-19 should produce an RT-PCR negative certificate even if they are fully vaccinated.

Kerala gets 4,80,500 more doses of Covishield

Health Minister Veena George said that the State has received 4,80,500 more doses of Covishield vaccines. Of the total, 1,96,500 doses reached Kochi, and 1,34,000 arrived at Kozhikode on Friday. Besides, at least 1,50,000 doses were collected at Kochi on Thursday.

The State on Friday vaccinated 1,21,130 persons from 1,078 vaccination centres.

CM informs PM about efforts to mitigate the second wave

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the steps taken by the state government to mitigate the effects of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and sought allocation of more vaccine doses.

Vijayan said that the delta variant was found in the State during the second wave which began in April and during that time, the test positivity rate had reached almost 30 percent.

"Currently, the test positivity rate has come down to 10.4 percent. When compared to other states, the second wave started late in Kerala. We tried to delay the peak which helped the health sector," he said.

The Chief Minister said the state effectively followed the testing, quarantine and treatment protocol resulting in becoming the state with one of the lowest case mortality rates in the country.

"Even though other states have high mortality rates, we managed our case mortality rate at 0.48 percent," he added.

Vijayan also urged the allocation of more vaccine doses for the state.

He sought 60 lakh doses of vaccine for July and August and said that a letter in this regard had already been sent to the Prime Minister on July 11.

"Till now, 1.17 crore people of the state received the first dose of the vaccine while 44.18 lakh people received both the doses," he said.

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