Kerala on Friday recorded more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases for the fourth consecutive day. The toll rose by 116 to 16,701. With 20,772 cases, Kerala’s tally rose to 33,70,137 since the pandemic broke out last year. The state’s test positivity rate, which is the percentage of people who test positive for the virus out of those who have been tested overall, jumped to 13.61%.
As the Covid-19 cases continuing to surge in Kerala despite a declining trend in most other states of the country, a six-member team led by National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) director S K Singh on Friday reached the state to hold discussions with the district authorities and examine about the possible reasons behind an alarming rise in the coronavirus infections in the past few days. Speaking on the same, Dr Singh said that the team will split in two and will visit some districts reporting a high Covid-19 case positivity rate to to find out the reason behind it. “Two teams are in Kerala. We will be visiting three districts or about six. We will be visiting may be more districts if needed. There are many concerns about rising test positivity rate. The number of cases are declining elsewhere but Kerala is continuing with the transmission. Let us discuss with the state. We will be here for two to three days as it depends on our interactions with the state. The other team is already there in the northern district,” he said.
