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Kerala has on Sunday reported three fresh cases of Zika virus infections from the third batch of eight samples sent for testing, taking the total cases to 18. The first case was reported from a private hospital here on Thursday. The second batch of 27 samples has however returned 26 negative results.
Health Minister Veena George said here that the fresh cases were identified from the samples taken from the same private hospital from where the first case was reported, and all were tested at a lab in Coimbatore. Of the three, one is a 46-year-old patient and the other a 10-month-old infant.
Face any eventuality
The third is a staff of the private hospital. The minister, however, said that the State is prepared to face any eventuality arising from Zika virus infections.
Initial screening of samples is carried out in the government medical colleges in Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Kozhikode and the NIV, Alappuzha.
The state has on Sunday received 2,100 PCR kits for diagnostic tests from NIV, Pune, the minister said. These have been distributed among the government medical colleges in Thiruvananthapuram (1,000, which include 500 trioplex kits for chikungunya and 500 singleplex kits for Zica virus); Thrissur and Kozhikode (300 each); and NIV Alappuzha (500), all of which are singleplex kits for Zika virus.
Testing of blood samples
NIV Pune has advised the testing agencies here that blood samples should be screened for diagnosis. Serum is separated from 5 ml of blood collected from the patient to conduct the PCR test, which will take at least eight hours to turn out a result to start with, the minister said.
The State has 27 government-owned labs which are capable of carrying out the PCR assay. The government is willing to equip labs outside of the medical colleges for conducting these tests. A decision will be taken based on the arrival of adequate test kits and subject to approval from NIV Pune.
On the Covid-19 front, the State reported 12,220 new cases from the 1,16,563 samples tested on Sunday and 12,502 recoveries. The test positivity rate (TPR) came up to 10.48 per cent, with no signs yet of budging from the 10-per cent normal established for a long time now and extended plateauing.
There are 196 local self-government bodies with TPR of above 15 per cent; 370 with a TPR between 10- and 15 per cent; 382 with a TPR between 5 and 10 per cent; and only 86 with a TPR of below five per cent.
Active cases on Sunday numbered to 1,14,844, rebounding from a level below a lakh a week ago.
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