Coronavirus: At least 357 people have tested positive for the virus in Kerala.
On the 100th day of Kerala's fight against COVID-19, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan shared the updated figures of positive cases, along with the efforts made by the state government to contain the virus.
"100 Days of #COVID19 | Kerala Story It's been 100 days since the first case was reported. 258 active cases, 97 recovered, Total confirmed: 357 Deaths: 2. 12,710 samples tested Special COVID-19 Hospital, 1,251 Community Kitchens, 28,08,650 Individuals Served, 3,676 Destitutes Rehabilitated," Mr Vijayan tweeted.
India reported its first case in January after a Kerala student, who was studying at Wuhan University in China, was tested positive for the highly infectious disease.
Since then the coastal state, backed by a rigid protocol, including a 28-day quarantine to contain its spread. With a strong chain of command, starting from the health department to field workers, the state has shown the way to the rest of the country on dealing with such an outbreak.
"Our strategy for the containment of COVID-19 is satisfactory. We are yielding good results from our strategy for tracing, isolation, testing & treatment. PCR test is going on in 9 laboratories. We have tested more than 8000 samples so far," health minister K K Shailaja told news agency ANI.
Kerala has got the crucial approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research for testing plasma transfusion as a mode of treatment for critical COVID-19 patients in the state. The multi-centre trials, however, are still awaiting permissions from the Drug Controller of India, since this involves relaxation in blood donation norms.
The Convalescent Plasma Therapy involves transfusion of plasma from a person who recovered from Coronavirus into a patient who is likely to get critical. The recovered person's plasma, rich in antibodies, is expected to help the critical patient recover.
The total number of COVID-19 positive cases in India now stands at 6,412. Out of these, 5,709 are active patients and 504 of them have been cured/discharged and migrated, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed today.
With 30 new deaths reported in the last 12 hours, the number of dead has reached 199.
With inputs from PTI and ANI