Thiruvananthapuram, July 14: Kerala Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today said that the State is in the third phase of the outbreak of Covid pandemic and people need to be very cautious to stop community spread.

Briefing the media about the daily Covid situation in the State, the Chief Minister said, “Clusters of the disease spread has been found in Thiruvananthapuram, Malappuram and few other districts. The next stage is community spread and we should avoid it. The numbers of contact cases are increasing by the day and it is being caused by negligence and carelessness on the part of the public”.

Explaining the stages, the CM said, “According to the World Health Organization, there are four stages to the spread of the disease. First is a no patient scenario, second is a sporadic spread where patients coming from outside the community spread the disease in the community, third is the spread of the disease to certain populations and clusters, and fourth is widespread community spread. We are now facing the third stage.”

It has been more than six months since Covid preventive measures began in the State. The disease is spreading more and more every day and one assessment is that disease control can only be achieved by the end of this year. It is quite natural for healthcare workers to feel fatigued since they have to work hard for such a long time.

In view of the increasing outbreak of Covid, the present activities of the local bodies and the people’s representatives should be further expanded and strengthened to contain its spread. “LSG bodies are local regional governments and the basic foundation of our democratic setup is ward. Hence the Ward Member and Council Member play an important role in Covid preventive measures”, he added.