Chief Minister says no community spread

‘TPR and CFR low in the State’

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday reiterated that community transmission had not occurred in Kerala and sought to establish it with an array of figures. He said local disease transmission or the number of cases in the State due to contact was low. Of the 644 cases reported in the State since May 10, the number of cases due to contact was just 65 or 10.09%. Of the 576 active cases in the State now, the number of cases due to contact was 45.

Random sampling

In the augmented sample testing done by the State, when 3,128 samples were randomly collected from selected “high risk” groups on a single day, the number of COVID-19 cases found was just four. The sentinel surveillance survey, also conducted to determine the extent of community transmission, had only thrown up four positive cases.

The pooled sample testing done amongst those who had returned from abroad showed 29 new positive cases. “These figures are proof that there is no community transmission in Kerala. All 28 health-care workers in the State who tested positive for COVID-19 had direct contact with positive cases,” Mr. Vijayan said.

The deaths registered in Kerala between January 1 and May 15 last year was 93,717. The figure in the same period this year is 20,562 less than last year. “The first COVID case was reported here in January end. If there was community transmission, this would not be the state of affairs. The State Medical Board that analysed the number of fever and pneumonia cases and patients admitted in ICU since January this year and the same period in the previous year also found a decrease in the number of patients,” he said.

He said the State had a clear testing strategy and plan and the focus now would be on limiting disease transmission from the detected positive COVID-19 cases and in picking up more cases through increased testing.

Kerala has done 80,091 COVID-19 diagnostic tests.

2,335 tests per million

The State was doing 2,335 tests per million. The test positivity rate (positive cases per 100 tests) was 1.7%, lower than the national average of 5%. The case fatality rate of Kerala was just 0.5%. Only when the TPR and CFR were high should it be considered that adequate testing was not being done, he said.