Kerala Covid-19 Tracker: 10 new cases & Eight recoveries, total 129 patients under treatment

Thiruvananthapuram, April 23: Ten new cases of Coronavirus were reported in Kerala today. Four persons from Idukki district, two each in Kozhikode and Kottayam districts, and one each from Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts are those who tested positive. While four have come back from the neighbouring States, four are cases of local transmission and the remaining two are returnees from abroad.

Meanwhile, eight patients under treatment have tested negative today. Six patients from Kasargod district, and one each in Malappuram and Kannur districts are those who have recovered from Covid-19.

The total number of confirmed Coronavirus cases in the State is 447 and 129 patients are still under treatment in hospitals in various districts.

The total number of people under surveillance in the State has further come down to 23,876. Of these, 23,439 persons are under isolation at their homes and 437 are quarantined in hospitals. 148 persons were admitted to hospitals today.

Till date, 21,334 samples have been tested and 20,326 samples have been confirmed with no infection.

Briefing the media about the Covid situation in the State, Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan said, “There is no community spread or the expected phase III spread of Coronavirus in Kerala so far but the threat continues. Kasargod, Kannur, Kozhikode and Malappuram districts will continue to be in Red Zone will full restrictions. All the other ten districts in the State will be in Orange Zone. With the detection of new cases today, the status of Kottayam and Idukki districts have been changed from Green to Orange. The District administration would decide on the hotspot areas to be closed.”

“There would be an increase in the number of random tests in Red zones. In an effort to confirm that there is no community spread in the State, random antibody tests would be conducted among health workers, police personnel, home delivery persons, volunteers and migrant labourers.”, he added.

Kannur and Kottayam Medical Colleges gets ICMR approval for Covid testing

Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today announced that the Covid labs set up at the Pariyaram Government Medical College at Kannur and the Kottayam Medical College has got the approval from ICMR for Coronavirus testing. The lab at Kannur Medical College will start functioning from tomorrow.

The UV sterilised lab, spread over 2,200 sq. ft., is equipped with four real-time PCR machines. In the first phase, this lab will be able to do 15 tests per day which will be gradually increased to conduct 60 tests in the next phase.

“With the opening of these two new labs, tests to detect Covid-19 will be conducted in 14 government labs in Kerala. Apart from this, there are two private labs also in Kerala which are doing these tests. Since the number of Coronavirus cases was increasing in the State, the government had decided to procure ten real-time PCR machines to ramp up testing”, the CM added.

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