Thiruvananthapuram, June 18: Kerala Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today informed that the State Government is in discussion with the airline companies and Embassies in certain Gulf countries to make available the TrueNat Covid test kits for testing Pravasis before they embark on their flight to India.

Briefing the media, the Chief Minister said, “There are Gulf countries where there is no facility for Rapid tests or where Pravasies are facing difficulty in conducting Rapid tests. The Kerala government will make available TrueNat kits in these places. This requires the cooperation of the airline companies and the permission of the Indian embassies in the respective countries, and the discussions are going on. There are already testing facilities in the UAE and Qatar. So these kits will be useful in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman to facilitate the testing of expatriates returning from these countries.”

The CM also added that enough testing kits are available with the State to send them abroad and the modalities will be worked out on getting the permission.

So far, 2,79,657 people have returned to Kerala from other states and abroad. Of these, 1,172 were diagnosed with Covid infection. 669 of these positive cases were in those who came back from foreign countries and 503 in those who arrived from other states. 327 came by road from other states and 128 by train. Maharashtra accounted for the maximum number of 313 cases reported among those who came from other states. “In fact, these figures indicate the need to increase our vigilance. We also need to check if we are becoming careless”, he added.