Kerala well prepared to handle increasing number of new COVID-19 cases, says CM

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], May 29 : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday said that the state is well prepared to handle the increasing number of new COVID-19 cases which was expected with a large number of people coming back from other places.
He also assured that as of now there is no community spread of the pandemic in Kerala.
Briefing the media about the daily COVID-19 situation in the state, Chief Minister said, "There is no need for concern over the rising number of new positive cases. This was expected with the relaxation in lockdown guidelines also and we have prepared the preventive plans accordingly. We are increasing the number of tests to check any community spread."
He said that the Medical Services Corporation has been allotted Rs 620.71 crores for Covid management and so far Rs 227.35 crores have been spent.
"Currently, there are 12,191 isolation beds in government hospitals available in the state and only 1,080 people are isolated in hospitals. The 1,296 government hospitals have 49,702 beds, 1,369 ICU beds and 1045 ventilators. The 866 hospitals in the private sector have 81,904 beds, 6,059 ICU beds and 1,578 ventilators. There are 851 corona care centres in the state," he said.
Chief Minister Vijayan said that the Test Positive Rate (TFR) in Kerala is 1.7% as compared to the 5% TFR in the country.
"Our Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is 0.5%. High CFR and TPR indicate fewer tests but here it's the opposite. Our improved public health system, efficient contact tracing and scientific quarantine are the keys to this achievement. So far we have conducted 80,091 tests in total, all types included. Our numbers are high. Our count is 2,335 tests per 10 lakh people. We have one positive case for every 71 tests while the national average is one for every 23 tests. This means we are conducting thrice the number of tests of the national average", the CM said.
He further informed that, so far, 1,33,249 Malayalees have returned to the State from other states amid lockdown of which 73,421 came from Red Zones. Of the total 644 cases since May 10, only 65 were cases of local transmission, which is 10.09 per cent. Out of the current 557 active cases, only 45 persons have contracted the disease through contact.
"To check the possibility of community spread, sentinel surveillance and augmented tests are being conducted and only four each positive cases were detected so far. 29 positive cases were detected from pooled tests of returning migrants. Based on these results, we can confidently say that there is not community spread in Kerala", he added.
He further informed that till now, 28 health workers have contracted the disease in Kerala. This includes hospital medical staff, ASHA workers, public health workers etc who were involved in patient care and were in direct contact with COVID-19 patients.
Chief Minister Vijayan further said that 62 new COVID-19 cases in the state on Friday. The Chief Minister said one death was also reported in the state.
"With 62 new COVID-19 cases in the state, there are 1150 COVID-19 cases in the state of which 575 are active cases," he said.
He further said that 10 more persons recovered today, taking the total number of recovered patients in the state to 565.
As per the latest update by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of coronavirus in the country stands at 1,65,799, including 89,987 active cases, 71106 recovered/migrated and 4,706 deaths.