Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, for the first time, has conceded that the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the State with untraceable sources points to the possibility of community transmission.
Briefing the media here on Tuesday, Mr. Vijayan said the situation was turning grave and that the number of asymptomatic cases as well as cases where the source of infection was unknown was on the rise.
He said that across India, while the source of infection could not be pinpointed in 40% of the cases, in Kerala, the proportion of such cases was less than 2%.
Mr. Vijayan said that even in case where the source of infection could not be identified, the State had implemented effective intervention protocols. Around the locality of every such case, the Health Department was checking for case clustering, which would indicate community transmission.
These localities were being turned into containment zones and strict measures were being taken to prevent disease transmission. Till now, through these measures, the government had kept disease transmission low and had prevented community spread. However, this did not mean that community spread was a distant threat.
Testing to be increased
Mr. Vijayan said that cases of local transmission comparatively seemed to be more in Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Malappuram and said that stringent measures at curbing local transmission would have to be implemented.
He said that people needed to be aware that the virus was around them and that one had to keep oneself safe through adequate precautions.
The government proposed to increase the number of testing centres as well as testing at all levels and categories of persons in an attempt to actively find cases and stop disease transmission.
Steps were being taken for addressing the shortage of health-care workers. Final year students of medicine would be given clinical posting so that there are more hands in hospitals.