Test positivity rate dipped to 17.91 per cent on Friday (18.41 per cent the previous day) after 1,63,691 samples were tested (1,74,307), yielding 29,322 daily new cases (32,097).

The number of deaths reported over the past few days and compiled on Friday was 131 (188), taking the cumulative toll to 21,280.

Current hospital admissions stood at 33,458 (33,282) on a day when recoveries logged in at 22,938 against a reduced daily new cases number, compared to Thursday. The number of wards with a Weekly Infection Population Ratio above the threshold of 7 per cent was at 296 (unchanged).

Quarantine norms

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Friday that a complete lockdown may not be an effective or practical tool for containment of virus transmission. The ward-level defence committees had given up on their vigil, he told a meeting of presidents and top officials of local self-government bodies.

Quarantine protocols were being flouted with impunity, the Chief Minister told the online meeting. The brainstorming session with the local body administrators was a follow-up on the meeting of virologists, public health experts, immunologists and epidemiologist Vijayan had convened on Wednesday.

The Chief Minister instructed the local body officials to put in their best foot forward to bring the pandemic under control within the next two weeks. The ward-level committees should also have police presence. Quarantine expense must be recovered from those who are booked for flouting the norms.

SC stay

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ordered a stay for six days the Kerala government’s decision to conduct Class 11 (Plus 1) examination. The apex court issued this order on a special leave petition, taking a dim view of the ‘alarming situation’ resulting from intense transmission of Covid in the State.

With over 30,000 cases being reported on a daily basis, the State accounts for as much as 70 per cent of the cases detected nationally. A three-member Bench that ordered the stay wondered if the State government had taken into account this fact while deciding on the conduct of the examination.

Back home, Health Minister Veena George said that the State is facing a vaccine shortage, with six districts running out of stock of Covishield.

These are Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kannur, leaving the State with only 1.4 lakh doses in hand. The stock of Covaxin, too, is negligible.

The Minister feared that the shortage may jeopardise the Health Department’s plan to administer the first doses to all (age group of 18-plus) by September-end. It was particularly worried about achieving a near-term milestone of vaccinating all teachers by Teachers’ Day (September 5), she added.

It has administered the first dose to 100 per cent of healthcare and frontline workers, while 86 per cent of both categories received the second dose. In the 45-plus age category, 92 per cent has been covered by the first dose and 47 per cent the second dose. In the 18-44 group, 54 per cent received the first dose.

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