With Kerala seeing new high single-day surges in COVID-19 each day, the state government on Saturday imposed new curbs in the state immediately, including registration of those coming from outside the state on the COVID-19 jagratha portal.
In the highest single-day surge since the outbreak of COVID-19, Kerala recorded 13,835 positive cases on Saturday, pushing the total cases so far to count to 12,21,167 lakh and the active cases to 80,019, the state government said.
The new curbs call for weddings and house warming ceremonies to be registered. According to a government order, details of public functions, including ceremonies like marriage and house warming, should be registered on the 'COVID-19 jagratha portal' in advance.
The number of people allowed for public functions organised indoor and outdoor venues has been limited to 75 and 150 respectively until further orders, state chief secretary Dr V P Joy said in the order.
The state police in a Facebook post said that people coming to Kerala from other countries and other states have to register in the Jagratha portal in view of the rising cases.
Kerala’s test positivity rate shot up to 17.04% on Saturday. A total of 3,654 recoveries and 27 fatalities were recorded on Saturday, taking the total recoveries to 11,35,921 and fatalities to 4,904.
Ernakulam district recorded the highest number of cases at 2,187, followed by Kozhikode with 1,504, Malappuram having 1,430, and Kottayam 1,154. Thrissur and Kannur followed close by with 1,149 and 1,132 cases respectively.
Ernakulam and Kozhikode districts have over 11,000 people undergoing treatment for the virus.
Of the positive cases reported Saturday, 58 are health workers, 259 had come from outside the state and 12,499 were infected through local transmission.
According to the release, at least 2,18,542 people are presently under observation, including 10,539 in hospitals.
A government bulletin said that 1,35,159 samples had been collected on Friday from various parts of the state. In the 24 hours ending 2 pm on Saturday, 81,211 samples were tested and the results of the remaining samples would be received in the coming days. So far, 1,41,62,843 samples have been sent for testing.