7 Kerala districts declared 'COVID-19 hotspots' by chief minister

Thiruvananthapuram: Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Thrissur, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram districts of Kerala were declared COVID-19 hotspots by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. He announced this in a corona-special press meet held at the state capital yesterday. These seven districts have the highest number of COVID-19 infections confirmed in the state and hence are under strict inspection by the police and health department.

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Until yesterday, 193 NRIs returning from abroad had tested positive for COVID-19. 7 foreign citizens also tested positive. 76 people contracted the disease by coming in contact with other patients. One person who tested positive had returned after visiting Nizamuddin Markaz earlier. The state had tested 8456 samples till yesterday evening.

There was only a small dip in the number of positive cases in Kerala on Thursday. The previous day saw 24 positive cases, while yesterday the number of new cases dropped to 21, taking the state toll to 286 patients.

Out of these, 30 are cured and 256 are still undergoing treatment in various hospitals across the state. There are 1,65,297 people placed under home quarantine, 643 kept in isolation in hospitals. 145 new admissions were made to hospitals yesterday.

Though there seems to be no explosion of positive cases in the state, yet, if we take a five-day account of cases, it saw a higher number of cases than the previous set of five days.

At the moment Kasaragod remains the most infected state. Eight out of the 21 fresh infections yesterday were reported from the north-most district of the state and the total number of cases in Kasaragod increased to 129 as of April 2. 

• Pinarayi Vijayan
• COVID-19 hotspots
• Thiruvananthapuram
• Kerala