Kerala on Monday saw a major reduction in its daily tally of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) after 8,850 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the caseload to 4,729,083, according to the health department’s bulletin. This is the first time in weeks that the daily cases were below the 10,000-mark.
As many as 17,007 patients recovered and 149 succumbed to the viral disease in the same period. With this, the cumulative count of recoveries and deaths has climbed to 4,574,206 and 25,526 respectively. The active cases in the southern state stand at 128,736, the bulletin also showed.
On Sunday, Kerala saw 12,297 cases while on Saturday 13,217 people were detected as Covid-19 positive. However, the fall in cases on Monday can be attributed to the lower number of cases carried out during the previous day. In the past 24 hours, only 74,871 samples were tested for Covid-19.
Of Monday’s case count, 50 were health workers, 42 were from outside Kerala and 8,368 were infected with Covid-19 through contact, with the source of it not clear in 390. Over 415,000 patients are under surveillance in the state of which 399,228 are in home or institutional quarantine and 16,261 in hospitals.
Authorities have so far administered 35,877,274 vaccine doses to eligible beneficiaries of which 24,750,569 have received the first dose while the 11,126,705 are fully vaccinated — given both doses.
Colleges in Kerala reopened on Monday after a gap of more than one year, with adherence to all Covid-19 related norms. Classes for the final year degree and postgraduate students began on Monday while the rest of the classes will start from October 18. College authorities checked the temperature of the students and hand sanitisers were provided at the entrance. They also ensured that students entering colleges were vaccinated with at least one dose.
From November, the state government will resume physical classes for all schools across Kerala and guidelines for these will be issued by Tuesday, education minister V Sivankutty had said on Sunday.
Students of classes 1 to 7 and 10 and 12 can come back to school from November 1. Education minister Sivankutty said on Sunday that extensive preparations have commenced for resuming offline classes. “Some schools have a lack of infrastructure facilities, so the government is planning to accommodate those students in nearby schools within the stipulated day of schools reopening so that they can follow all the Covid-19 guidelines,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
