Situation dire as TPR over 50% in 72 panchayats: CM

Thiruvananthapuram: The test positivity rate (TPR) has crossed 50% in 72 panchayats in the state, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Monday.
Expressing concern over the seriousness of the situation, he said that in over 300 panchayats, the TPR is above 30% and added that there were 57 panchayats with active case load of 500 to 2,000. The chief minister said that the number of people who are testing positive in Kannur, Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam, continues to remain high and thereby serious, while it is slowly showing a reducing trend in other districts.
The chief minister said that since oxygen continues to be in high demand, the government has initiated steps to reduce the wastage of oxygen. The government has also initiated steps to appoint more doctors and paramedical staff. The government will appoint retired doctors and those who have come back after leave and studies. He said that the government has taken steps to strengthen the home delivery system in the wake of Ramzan, and a special mobile application developed for the purpose can be emulated in other places too.
Of the doses of Covid vaccine that the state has decided to purchase, 3.5 lakh doses have reached the state. These will be administered to those who are facing serious ailments, volunteers of ward-level samithis and media persons. The chief minister said that the local bodies can utilize the plan fund for Covid management.
The chief minister said that the public should ensure that the lockdown rules are strictly followed, and the police passes for emergency travel should not be misused.
Stating that more than a lakh people applied for passes within 12 hours of opening the pass portal, he said that such a behaviour would defeat the very intention behind locking down the state. He said that while it was a preventive lockdown in the first wave, it is an emergency lockdown in the present phase, which is intended to reduce the death rate. For the same reason, the current lockdown has the value of each one’s life, the CM said.