Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala''s COVID-19 tally is inching towards the one lakh mark with 3,349 fresh cases on Thursday and the death toll climbed to 396 with 12 more fatalities, as Health Minister K K Shailaja warned that situation could worsen following easing of lockdown curbs. The total infection tally in the state has touched 99,265 with the addition of the fresh cases. This is the third consecutive day that the southern state is reporting over 3,000 cases on a single day. While on Wednesday, 3,042 new cases were detected, on Tuesday,it was 3,026. Of thenew positive cases, 3,058 were infected through contact and the source of infection of 266 people is not known, Shailaja said in a press release.
Fifty of the infected had come from abroad and 165 from other states. Thiruvananthapuram reported 558 cases, followed by Malappuram 330, Thrissur 300, Kannur 276,Alappuzha 267, Kozhikode 261, Ernakulam 227, Kollam 224, and Kottayam 217. According to the release,72health workers are among those who tested positive today. While 72,578 people have recovered from the infection, including 1652 whose samples returned negative today, 26,229 people are presently undergoing treatment for the infection in the state, it said. Over 2.04 lakh people are under observation of whom 20,248 are in various hospitals. In the last 24 hours, 40,014 samples have been sent for testing, while 20,18,921 samples have so far been tested.
The minister said the situation in the state in the coming days will become more serious as there are chances for spread of the infection resulting in more deaths after the restrictions due to lockdown are eased. "Kerala has the lowest death rate in the country.But as the lockdown restrictions will be eased from September 21, there is a chance of increase in death rate as the spread will increase. We need to be more careful.We need to maintain the safety protocol which we have effectively implemented in the state," the minister said. Urging the people to be more cautious, she said though there are enough COVID first line treatment centres and Covid hospitals,if the infection spreads to the elderly, then the present stock of ventilators would be insufficient.
"We have come this far, we have managed to keep the infection under control. I hope we can fight our way through it," she said after inaugurating various facilities at Ernakulam medical college through video conference.
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