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The Covid-19 test positivity rate (TPR) has inched beyond the ‘comfort zone’ around 10 per cent and tested the 11 per cent-mark on Monday on a comparatively smaller base of only 89,654 samples tested. The actual TPR printed in at 11.08 per cent with 9,931 new cases being reported on the day.
The number of recoveries were at 13,206 and active cases, 1,21,708, an official spokesman of the State Health Department said. The number of local self-government jurisdictions where the TPR rules higher than 15 per cent has remained unchanged at 205 over the past few days.
There are 362 local self-government jurisdictions with a TPR between 10 and 15 per cent; 384 jurisdictions with a TPR between five per cent and 10 per cent; and 83 with a rate below five per cent.
The number of deaths reported was 58 on the day which took the cumulative toll to 15,408.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the TPR tends to be high due to the testing strategy adopted, where the intense virus transmission phase of the virus affords the State with the option of testing only symptomatic patients and those who have come into contact with Covid-19-positive patients.
TPR brought down from high
The second wave that hit other States in mid-March had manifested late Kerala by May and the virulent delta variant pumped up transmission and sent the TPR peaking to beyond 29 per cent and daily new cases beyond 42,000. The State had managed to gradually bring down the TPR to a plateau of 10 per cent.
Even during the peak, hospital admissions never went up beyond the 70 per cent of capacity, the Chief Minister said. Also, almost 90 per cent of the patients were treated free at the government-owned hospital network across the state. The case fatality rate is around 0.48 per cent, among the lowest.
Two more Zika cases
Meanwhile, Health Minister Veena George announced that the State has reported two more Zika virus cases on Monday, both from Thiruvananthapuram, the epicenter of the outbreak. Both are women patients, and one is 31-year-old doctor a resident within the city limits. The state has so far reported 37 cases of Zika virus infections, with only seven of them being active cases concurrently.
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