Daily special non-AC train from Bangalore to Kerala from May 21  

 Thiruvananthapuram, May 19: Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today disclosed that there the Railways have announced a daily special non-AC Chair car train from Bengaluru to the State. This service will commence on May 21 from Bangalore.

 A special non-AC train from Delhi to Kerala will leave New Delhi on May 20 at 6 pm with 1,304 passengers. The list includes 971 people from Delhi and 333 from UP, Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

 “Those who have expressed their desire to come back to Kerala and registered on the Norka website have been prioritised by the Government. Pregnant women, the sick and children should come back first. But we have observed that those who don’t have a need to come back urgently are taking advantage of the system thus denying the opportunities for those who genuinely need to come back. I request everyone not to rush and cooperate with the government's arrangements. We are making arrangements for all to come back. There might be some delay but everyone will be brought back”, the Chief Minister said.

 All the details are being collected from those who are coming back from outside. The Police, health department and the local bodies would keep these details.

Kerala asks for entrance examination centres in Gulf countries

 Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today informed that he has requested the intervention of the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi in allotting entrance examination centres in the UAE and other Gulf countries where a large number of expatriate Indian students live.

 “There has been concern among the expatriate students in the Gulf about writing the various entrance examinations including NEET. This year's NEET examination is scheduled for July 26 and because of the travel ban from abroad, it won’t be possible for those students to come to India to write these exams. It is in this context that Kerala has asked for entrance examination centres in the Gulf countries” said the CM.

 Minister of Health & Social Justice, Smt K K Shailaja Teacher; Revenue Minister, Shri E Chandrasekharan, and Chief Secretary, Shri Tom Jose IAS were also present during the briefing.

 Kerala Covid-19 Tracker

12 new cases today, total 142 patients under treatment

Thiruvananthapuram, May 19: 12 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Kerala today - five in Kannur district, three from Malappuram district, and one each in Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Thrissur and Palakkad districts. Four of them have come back from overseas (UAE-1, Saudi Arabia-1, Kuwait-1 & Maldives-1) and eight have returned from other States (Maharashtra-6, Gujarat-1 & Tamil Nadu-1).

 No patient under treatment for Coronavirus cases has tested negative today. The total number of confirmed cases in Kerala is 642 and 142patients are now under treatment in different hospitals in the State.

 There are 72,000 persons under surveillance across the State - 71,545 quarantined at their homes and 455 under isolation in hospitals. 119 persons were hospitalised today.

 Till now, 46,958 samples have been sent for testing and the available results of 45,527 samples are negative. 1,297 samples were collected today. As part of sentinel surveillance of high-risk group, 5,630 samples were collected and tested separately. Of these, 5,340 samples have been confirmed with no infection.

 Three places in Kannur district and one place in Kottayam district were declared as hotspots today. There are now 33 hotspots in the State.

 Briefing the media, Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan said, “Kerala could control new cases for some time but now, with people coming in from abroad and other states, new cases have increased as expected. The next phase is community spread and to stop it, we will have to vigorously continue the Break the Chain methods, quarantine and reverse quarantine. So far only four cases have been detected through sentinel surveillance. That means till now there is not community spread in the State but there is no place for complacency.”

 So far 74,426 people have arrived in Kerala with the Covid pass, 63,239 by road. Out of these, 44, 712 were from Red Zone districts. The remaining came by 26 flights and three ships.

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