Thiruvananthapuram, July 24: Kerala Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today informed that the State ranks third in India in terms of Covid testing. “In terms of testing, Kerala ranks third in terms of the scientific method of test per million by case per million. The test positivity in the state is only 2.6 per cent. According to the WHO, less than 5% of cases means the situation is under control. Today, the number of new cases has dropped to less than a thousand. Even though the number of recoveries was more, the situation in many parts of the state requires more caution”, the Chief Minister said.

Although Covid19 was first reported in India in Kerala as early in January, meticulous interventions have helped to reduce the virus outbreak and reduce mortality. In the first two stages, the infection spread was effectively prevented. The third stage was expected. “It was out achievement that we could reduce the number of deaths. The case fatality rate is 0.31%. As of yesterday, 16,110 people had been infected and the death toll was only 50”, he added.

The State has gradually increased the testing facilities. Starting with just one lab, today RTPCR testing facilities are available at 25 locations, including 15 government labs and eight private labs. True NAT testing is conducted at 19 government labs and 15 private labs, CB NAT testing at six government labs and nine private labs. There are also 10 labs for airports and clusters antigen testing. Currently, various Covid tests are being performed in 84 labs. Steps are being taken to set up eight more government labs. Accredited private labs are also allowed to test.

Initially, just fewer than 100 tests were being conducted daily. Now it has been ramped up to more than 25,000, depending on the outbreak of the disease. In the last 24 hours, 25,160 samples were tested. So far, a total of 6,35,272 samples have so far been sent for testing, including routine samples, Airport Surveillance, Pooled Sentinel, CBNAT, Trunat, CLIA and Antigen Assay.

The CM also informed that there is enough stock of kits for 30 days. More kits will be procured through KMSCL in case of shortage.