Kerala’s engagement with COVID-19 is not likely to end in a few weeks or months and, hence, the State is bracing itself for the long haul by preparing long-term plans for disease containment as well as health system capacity building, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.

The State reported 702 new cases and two deaths on Monday. Even though there seemed to be a slight let-up in cases in the State, with 745 recoveries also being reported on the same day, all indications pointed to a likely increase in disease transmission in the coming days, Mr. Vijayan said.

Clusters a concern

Briefing the media here on Monday, he said while disease transmission within clusters seemed to go up on the one hand, on the other, many clusters seemed to be expanding too.

Epidemiologists were being given the task of studying about these clusters and possibly mapping out the clusters where disease transmission was likely to occur.

Locally acquired infections accounted for 536 of the 702 cases reported on Monday, with authorities unable to link the infections to a particular source in at least 35 cases.