In what may hint at a high rate of Covid-19 transmission within the state following Onam, Kerala on Wednesday reported 31,445 fresh Covid-19, with the test positivity rate (TPR) touching 19 per cent now. this is often the primary time that the state has reported quite 30,000 fresh cases since May 20 this year, when the second wave was raging.

On Wednesday, seven of the 14 districts — Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Kollam, and Kottayam — reported upwards of 2000 cases each. While Ernakulam reported the very best number of fresh infections (more than 4000 cases), Thrissur, Kozhikode, and Malappuram reported quite 3000 cases each.

With 20,271 persons recovering, the amount of active cases within the state stood at 1,70,292.

For the past several weeks, Kerala has been contributing quite half the daily cases to the national caseload with the seven-day average TPR being at 17.13 percent. Though its case deathrate stood at 0.5 percent, the rise in cases despite lockdowns and restrictions has been alarming.

A six-member team deputed by the Centre to seem into the high number of infections in Kerala had earlier reported lapses in home isolation protocols, contact-tracing measures and a coffee number of RT-PCR tests.

State Health Minister Veena George said on Wednesday that the government plans to start a programme to check maximum number of individuals with the aim of isolating them as quickly as possible and stop the virus from getting transmitted from them to others. She said the state follows the scientific testing principle of test per million by case per million. As cases increases, testing are going to be ramped up too.

“Testing are going to be increased in districts with low vaccination. After identifying high-infection areas and clusters, maximum number of individuals there’ll be subjected to testing. Sample collection are going to be wiped out clusters directly and thru special camps. Action has been taken to process test results quickly,” she said during a statement.