Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today warned about the possibility of the formation of new Covid clusters in the State after the culmination of Onam festivities.
Briefing the media about the Covid situation in the State, the Chief Minister said, “Even though the number of new Covid cases being reported in the State has come down in the last few days, the test positivity rate was much higher than the usual rate and this is a matter of concern. Moreover, the number of tests being conducted in the last few days had also come down due to reluctance of people to go in for testing during the Onam festival time and a large number of public holidays. (It may be noted that there were six public holidays in the last week.) The next two weeks period is crucial as we may see Onam clusters being formed in the State due to increased outdoor public activity and travel during the festival time. We can expect a hike in the Covid cases.”
The CM has exhorted everyone to be more vigilant until a vaccine is available and practise caution as a social vaccine. “We now need to effectively implement social vaccines like Break the Chain. Caution should be exercised in anticipation of the possibility of new clusters and increased spread of the outbreak”, he added.
Good response to Covid Brigade
The Chief Minister informed that there has been a very good response to the call for people to volunteer for the Covid Brigade. The registration on the Covid Jagratha Portal has increased significantly. So far, 12,804 people have registered out of which 6,236 are medical professionals. There are 2,397 doctors, 2,605 nurses, 706 lab technicians and 530 pharmacists registered from all streams of medicine including Allopathy, Ayurveda and Homoeopathy. All these registered people will be kept ready as a reserve force. If the number of cases increases as predicted by experts, their services can be used in hospitals and Covid First-Line Treatment Centres. The first team has gone to Kasargod yesterday for deployment. The CM also requested more people to register for the Covid Brigade.