The Covid-19-related death toll in Kerala on Thursday crossed the 30,000-mark with 708 related fatalities reported in the last 24 hours, a bulletin from the state health department showed.
However, only 56 of the 708 deaths were counted as daily deaths while 542 deaths could not be confirmed until June 18 last year due to non-availability of adequate documentation while 110 more deaths were added to the toll due to Covid following the appeals received based on the new guidelines set by the Union government according to the Supreme Court’s directions, news agency PTI reported citing a statement from the state government.
“56 deaths in the past days were confirmed today due to Covid-19. In addition to this, as per the Supreme Court verdict, 110 deaths appealed according to the new guidelines of the central government and 542 deaths till last June 18 which were not confirmed due to lack of sufficient documents have been reported. With this, the total death toll in the state has reached 30,685,” state health minister Veena George said in her daily update about Covid-19 situation in the state, through a Facebook post.
Meanwhile, as many 7,738 people in the state tested positive for the disease on Thursday and the total confirmed infections so far reached 4,936,341, the bulletin also showed. There were 9,445 new cases reported on Wednesday.
The active caseload witnessed a significant jump of 1,568 from the 76,554 reported on the previous day to stand at 78,122 currently. Ernakulam with 12,277 cases and capital city Thiruvananthapuram with 10,698 cases contributed the most to the state’s active caseload tally.
On the vaccination front, 94.58% of the eligible population has been vaccinated with the first dose while 50.02% are fully vaccinated, George said. The minister also said that Kerala is the state with the most vaccination per million in India with 1,081,056 vaccinations. As of 7am on the day, 38,492,170 doses of the vaccine have been administered in the state, the Union health ministry’s data showed.
The Kerala government allowed the reopening of cinema halls, theatres and indoor auditoriums from Monday however mandated full vaccination for entry into the places and allowed only half the seating capacity.
