Announcing the COVID-19 updates on Monday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan read out the statistics, saying that these still proved that the state was doing well in controlling the spread of the disease.
Kerala, which had managed to keep the COVID-19 numbers low earlier, has been reporting a higher number of new cases in recent days and worryingly, more of these are through local transmission. In the last four days, the number of cases has been more than 400 every day.
On Monday, 449 new cases were reported, out of which 144 people were infected through contact. The contact history of 18 patients has not been traced yet. Seventy-seven personnel of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police also tested positive. There have also been 162 recoveries.
There have been two deaths of COVID-19 patients – 74-year-old Thyagarajan in Kollam and 64-year-old Aysha in Kannur. The death toll in the state is now 34.
Monday was also the day the most number of people were admitted to hospitals for observation – 713.
However, CM Pinarayi gave out statistics that could come as a relief. Evaluating how well a place was doing in COVID-19 management depended on four factors – death rate, the spread of the disease, test sufficiency and recovery. He compared Kerala with three other states, as well as numbers across India.
| Kerala | Karnataka | Tamil Nadu | Maharashtra | India | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case Fatality Rate (deaths per 100 cases) | 0.39 | 1.77 | 1.42 | 4.16 | 2.67 |
| Deaths in a day (July 12) | 2 | 71 | 68 | 173 | 500 |
| Deaths per million | 0.9 | 11.3 | 27.2 | 94.2 | 17.1 |
| Test Positivity Rate | 2.27 | 4.53 | 8.57 | 19.25 | 7.46 |
| Test per million Vs Case per million | 44 | 22 | 6 | 6 | 13 |
While it is ideal for the test positivity rate to remain low, the test per million versus case per million statistics should be above 50. The higher the number, the higher the test sufficiency is – in other words, it shows the state is doing sufficient tests, the CM said.
“Kerala had been able to keep the TRP below 2 and the test per million versus case per million above 50 till recently. This number shows that we still need to do more tests,” CM Pinarayi said.
The Chief Minister's statement also comes a day after BJP chief JP Nadda accused the CM of "messing up" the COVID-19 situation in the state by "suppressing" figures. The BJP President, however, provided no proof of his allegations.
In the last 24 hours, 12,230 samples were tested in Kerala. This will be further increased, CM Pinarayi increased.
“We have earlier said that there are two large community clusters in the state. In addition, there are 51 other clusters. At these places, efforts are being made to trace the contacts and find out how the disease has spread. Awareness and reverse quarantine have been implemented effectively," the Chief Minister said.