416 test positive on Friday, 242 infected via contact in Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In an indication of the worsening Covid-19 situation in the state, contact cases have started exceeding cases among returnees from abroad and other states in the daily tally. The state on Friday witnessed a massive surge of 416 cases, the highest single-day count so far, of which contact cases were 242 as against 174 among returnees.
The state capital, with 129 new cases, continued to be a hotbed. Of these, 122 are contact cases and they have been reported from three wards of Manikyavilakom, Poonthura and Puthenpally alone.
From May 4 to July 10, the district reported 237 imported cases as against 382 contact cases.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said there are three major clusters in these wards that have resulted in the super spread and there is every chance of a community spread. The state is witnessing two such major clusters in Ponnani also. A cluster management strategy has begun in these areas, with perimeter control and aggressive testing.
TN man index case in Thiruvananthapuram’s coastal areas
A person who purchased fish from Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and sold them in Kumari chantha (market) in Poonthura is the index case in the coastal areas of Thiruvananthapuram. He had 13 direct contacts while there was a super spread later. As many as 1,192 samples were taken for antigen tests from these three wards in the past three days, of which 243 have tested positive.
Comparing the situation with that in Chennai and Bangalore, Vijayan said Thiruvananthapuram was also heading for a major crisis if adequate precautionary measures are not taken. "The government is doing its best to prevent the spread but there are some calculated attempts to thwart these measures. All these are being done with dubious intentions and the UDF is behind them," he alleged.
The chief minister reminded people that Kerala was densely populated and a minute lapse would be enough to put the entire state in a deep crisis.
The contact cases on Friday included 35 Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel in Alappuzha, two more BSF personnel in Thrissur and one more CISF personnel in Kannur. As many as 80 ITBP personnel have been put under observation.
Thiruvananthapuram (129) had the maximum cases on Friday, followed by Alappuzha (50), Malappuram (41), Pathanamthitta (32), Kollam and Palakkad (28 each), Kannur (23), Ernakulam
(20), Thrissur and Kasaragod (17 each), Kozhikode and Idukki (12 each) and Kottayam (7). As many as 112 patients recovered from the infection on the day.
In the last 24 hours, 11,693 samples were collected for tests. Till date, 2,26,868 samples (including repeat, augmented and private lab samples) have been sent for tests, of which results of 4,525 are pending. Besides, 66,132 of the total 70,122 samples taken from priority groups as part of sentinel surveillance have tested negative.
As many as 1,84,112 persons are under observation in the state, of whom 1,80,595 are under home/institutional quarantine and 3,517 admitted to isolation facilities.