Kerala local polls a reason for spike in COVID-19: KK Shailaja tells centre

As Kerala continues to record the highest numebr of COVID-19 cases in the country, Health Minister KK Shailaja informed the union ministry that local polls were a reason for the spike in cases. In a meeting with Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, she said that though there was no huge spike, the number of cases increased due to the local polls and associated activities. In the meeting, she also said that the government has taken measures to prevent further spike.

The government had warned earlier itself that there will be a spike in cases after the elections. The state minister also requested the centre to give priority to Kerala in the vaccination considering the state has the highest number of cases.

Meanwhile a team sent by the union government, headed by the Director of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr SK Singh, will reach Kerala on Friday.

"The team will review the public health interventions in management of COVID-19 by the state government of Kerala and support state health authorities in these measures," the union health ministry said.

The test positivity rate in Kerala was above 10% on Wednesday while the national average was around 3%.

5051 people were confirmed with COVID 19 in Kerala on Thursday, of which 4489 people got the virus through local transmission. The test positivity rate was 8.83%. 4 more persons who came back from the United Kingdom were tested positive. As of now 47 people who have returned from the UK have tested positive. A few have been confirmed to have been infected with the new variant of the SARS-CoV-2.

25 more deaths were reported on Thursday due to COVID 19. With that death toll in the state has touched 3235. Presently 64,445 people are under treatment for COVID-19 across the state. More than 7,28,000 patients have recovered.