Almost 1 yr after reporting country's first Covid case, Kerala

Almost a year sincethe country's first COVID-19 case was reported from Kerala,the state on Friday logged 6,268 infections on Friday, with72,239 active cases, the highest in the country.

It was on January 30, 2020 that a medical student, whoreturned to Thrissur from the Chinese province of Wuhan, theepicentre of the virus, tested positive.

With the fresh infections on Friday, the state's totalCovid caseload has risen to 9,17,630 while 6,398 recoveriestook the total number of those discharged to 8,41,444,thestate government said.

The virus has so far claimed 3704 lives in the state with22 recent deaths being added to the toll on Friday.

According to government sources, the death rate iscomparatively less in the state, compared to its neighbours.

The state now has72,239 active cases and 2,15,650 peopleare under observation in various districts, including11,752in hospitals.

Ernakulam district has the highest number of peopleundergoing treatment -- 11,024, followed by Kozhikode 8,023,Health minister K K Shailaja said.

In the last 24 hours, 58,815 samples have been tested andthe test positivity rate touched 10.66 per cent.

So far 95,18,036 samples have been sent for testing.

Since the beginning of this month, Kerala has beenwitnessing an alarming increase in the number of cases.

The state logged 35,296 cases between January 4 to 10,which rose to 36,700 within a week from January 11 andshot up to 42,430 in seven days from January 18.

With the rapid rise in cases, the state government hasdeployed25,000 police personnel to ensure that variousprotocols are strictly adhered to by the people, especially incrowded places like bus stands,hospitals and railway stations.

Soon after the medical student tested positive, thesecond and third cases in the country were reported onFebruary 2 and 3, both of whom had also returned from Wuhan.

However when the three recovered and there was no spread,the state heaved a sigh of relief.

The second wave of infections hit Kerala on March 8 whena three-member family from Ranni in Pathanamthitta arrivedfrom Italy and tested positive, along with two of their closerelatives.

Subsequently, four more relatives, including Thomas (93)and Mariyamma (88),the parents of Moncy,who had returned alongwith his wife and son from Italy, also contracted the virus.

All of them were cured and discharged.

Thomas passed away recently.

The recovery of the elderly couple got globalapplausefor the state with experts describing it as the ''rarest ofrare'' case as high mortality rate is generally seen in theelderly population globally due to the infection.

Kerala declared that it had flattened the curve on May8after it reported a solitary case, with just 16 people undertreatment, but by May 15, the total cases had jumped to 80.

As India began its biggest evacuation exercise to bringback its citizens stranded in gulf and other countries due toCOVID-19 since May, the cases started rising.

The state government has also decided to ramp up dailytesting to one lakh, with an aim to bring down the numbers bymid-February.