2,540 cases in State

Study hints at higher infectivity potential of virus: Chief Minister

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New COVID-19 cases showed a slight dip in the State on Monday, registering 2,540 cases, in proportion with the number of tests done on Sunday, which was also down to 22,279 samples. The number of recoveries was 2,110. The number of patients undergoing treatment is 30,486.

15 deaths

Fifteen more deaths, which occurred in the State in August and early September, were added to the State’s provisional list of COVID-19 fatalities by the Health department on Monday, taking the State’s official toll to 454. Two of these deaths had occurred as early as August 3. Three deaths each were reported from Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Palakkad, and Malappuram and one each from Kozhikode, Kasaragod, and Ernakulam.

Even when the number of cases dipped, there is no let-up in community transmission, with 2,433 cases out of the 2,540 new cases — nearly 96% — being locally acquired infections, including those reported in 64 health-care workers. In 212 cases, the infection could not be traced to any known source of transmission.

Malappuram reported 482 cases, Kozhikode 382, Thiruvananthapuram 332, Ernakulam 255, Kannur 232, Palakkad 175, Thrissur 161, Kollam 142, Kottayam 122, Alappuzha 107, Idukki 58, Kasaragod 56, Wayanad 20, and Pathanamthitta 16 cases. The current number of hotspots in the State is 615.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Monday that according to a genomic study conducted in north Kerala by CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, the virus strains currently circulating in Kerala belonged to the A2a clade, which is marked by the D614G mutation, which has been linked to possible higher infectivity potential in the virus. This means that the particular mutation can make the virus spread faster. However, scientists have cautioned that this was witnessed only in cell culture studies in in vitro (inside lab) settings and should not be extrapolated to the real world.Mr. Vijayan said that the government intended to repeat the genomic surveillance study using samples from other parts of the State.

Testing target

COVID transmission is likely to go up in the State when the remaining restrictions are relaxed and the public transport system operates normally. Testing had been hiked in the State to 45,000 samples a day. The government would like this to go up to 50,000 samples.