Kochi: For the first time in India, a state government has officially confirmed community transmission of COVID-19. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has admitted that the virus spread that way in two coastal villages in Thiruvananthapuram named Poonthura and Pulluvila.
The situation in the two coastal hamlets is critical, the chief minister said.
Community transmission is when there is no clear source of origin of infection in a community. It’s not clear how the virus sneaked in and spread among people who had no history of travel to infected places or had no contact with people from those places.
Though the rate of virus transmission has been very high in the big metros, the Union Health Ministry and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) have been in denial so far.
Community spread is confirmed when number of infections from unknown sources rises high with the formation of disease spread clusters. In these areas more than half of the people test positive.
On Friday, 51 persons tested positive out of a total of 97 samples collected in Pulluvila in Karimkulam panchayat. In Poonthura, 26 positive cases were reported among 50 people tested. Super spread of the virus was earlier detected in Poonthura.
With the discovery of community transmission, a triple lockdown has been imposed along the coastal areas in Thiruvananthapuram. Coastal hamlets will be strictly cordoned off to prevent further spread. More first line treatment centres will be opened in these areas and more police personnel will be deployed to constantly monitor the situation, added Pinarayi Vijayan.
Meanwhile, health authorities in Kerala are worried over the increasing number of health workers getting infected. On Friday, 15 health workers tested positive in the state.
Kerala reported the highest single-day spike of 791 cases on Friday among which 532 cases were locally transmitted. The source of infection of 42 patients is unknown. Thiruvananthapuram has the highest number of fresh cases, 246.
One more death was reported on Friday, taking the total number to 38. The number of active cases is 6029.
Despite the rapidly increasing infections, the mortality rate in Kerala is still low when compared to other states and the national average.
