Kerala Covid-19 Tracker: 94 new cases & 39 recoveries today, total 884 patients under treatment

Three deaths, total 14; Nine new hotspots, total 124

 Thiruvananthapuram, June 04: 94 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Kerala today. 47 of them have come back from abroad while 37 have returned from other States. Seven are cases of local transmission. Sharing the details, the Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan also announced the death of three persons who tested positive, one each in Palakkad, Malappuram and Kollam districts.

 14 people in Pathanamthitta district, 12 from Kasargod district, 11 in Kollam district, 10 from Kozhikode district, eight each in Alappuzha and Malappuram districts, seven from Palakkad district, six in Kannur district, five each in Thiruvananthapuram and Kottayam districts, four from Thrissur district and two each from Ernakulam and Wayanad districts are those who tested positive with the infection.

Kuwait-28, UAE-12, Russia-3, Qatar-1, Saudi Arabia-1, Maldives-1 and Tajikistan-1 make up the 47 who came back from overseas.  Maharashtra-23, Tamil Nadu-8, Delhi-3, Gujarat-2 and Rajasthan-1 add up the 37 from other states.

 Meanwhile, the results of 39 patients who were undergoing treatment for the disease were negative today. 13 patients in Palakkad district, eight from Malappuram district, seven in Kannur district, five from Kozhikode district, two each in Thrissur and Wayanad districts, and one each from Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanamthitta districts are those who recovered from Coronavirus.

The total number of confirmed cases in the State is 1,588 and 884 patients are under treatment in different hospitals.

 1,70,065 people are under observation in various districts across the state. Of these, 1,68,578 are under surveillance in home or institutional quarantine and 1,487 are in isolation in hospitals. 225 persons were hospitalised today.

 In the last 24 hours, 3,787 samples were tested. So far, 76,383 samples have been sent for testing and 72,139 samples have been confirmed with no infection. As part of Sentinel Surveillance, 18,146 samples were collected and out of these, 15,264 samples were negative. Till now, 99,962 samples have been tested in total.

 Nine new places were declared as hotspots today, one place in Kannur District, four in Palakkad district and five in Kollam district. At the same time, 13 places were excluded from the list. There are currently 124 hotspots in the State.

Concerted efforts to tarnish Kerala’s image using elephant incident: CM

 Thiruvananthapuram, June 04: Kerala Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today said that the elephant torture incident is being used to tarnish the image of the State. “It’s a baseless concerted campaign against Kerala at a national level and these won’t undo the big achievements of the State in Covid mitigation and treatment.” The CM had earlier announced an investigation into the elephant torture incident at Mannarkad Forest Division in Palakkad district.

Briefing the media, the Chief Minister said, “The police and forest department will jointly investigate the incident. An investigation is underway, focusing on three suspects. The district police chief and the district forest officer visited the site today. But it is really unfortunate that certain people are using this incident to tarnish the image of the State and Malappuram in particular. In spite of having clarified that the incident took place in Palakkad and not in Malappuram as being propagated, people including central ministers are still not willing to correct the mistake. It now looks like they are doing it deliberately. This is not acceptable and any efforts to spread hatred using this incident will not be tolerated.”

 The CM also added that human beings and animals should co-exist together and efforts will be taken to resolve man-animal conflicts to avoid such incidents in the future.

Detailed strategy for opening religious places only after central guidelines

 Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today informed that a detailed strategy for opening up religious places and places of worship will be prepared only after the Centre Government brings out its guidelines on the same. Even though the centre has announced that places of worship can open from June 08, they have not yet issued any guidelines regarding it. The Chief Minister today held a video conference meeting with the spiritual heads of different religions and leaders of various religious organisations and institutions. Discussions were held separately with Hindus, Christians and Muslims.

 Briefing about the meeting, the CM said, “The government has banned the gathering of people following the outbreak of Covid 19. These include gatherings that are part of political and social programmes, worship services at religious places, and festivals related to it. We know that large crowds must be avoided to prevent the spread of disease. As we are exiting the lockdown, we need a clear strategy on opening these places of worship without large gathering. All of them agreed with the government's stance that the restoration of normalcy in places of worship would lead to a large crowd and in the present situation, it would increase the spread of the disease. The religious leaders are of the opinion that all precautions should be taken, including limiting the number of believers who visit these places.”

 Senior citizens, children and the sick should avoid visiting the religious places as they are more susceptible to infection and if infected, it’s difficult to treat them. “In today's meeting, the religious leaders have put forth a number of practical suggestions to prevent the spread of disease in places of worship. These proposals will be presented before the Centre. The state government will take a final decision in this regard after the Centre issues the guidelines in this regard,” he added.

 The Chief Minister also thanked these leaders for their continued cooperation during the extended lockdown period.