Kerala reports 30% jump in COVID-19 cases in 24 hours terming it 'Onam Spike'

Kerala is the worst COVID-19 affected state in the country. In the past 24 hours, the number of new COVID-19 cases in the state has jumped nearly 30% to over 31,000 and 215 deaths. The state government is blaming the Onam festival for this jump and termed it the Onam spike'.

On Wednesday, Kerala reported 31,445 new cases, taking the total infection tally to 38,83,429 and fatalities to 19,972. The highest number was recorded in Ernakulam district with 4,048 new cases, followed by Thrissur which reported 3,865 new cases. The state recorded a test positivity rate of 19.03%.

This is the first time that Kerala has reported more than 30,000 fresh cases since May this year. With 20,271 persons recovering, the number of active cases in the state stood at 1,70,292. For the past several weeks, Kerala has been contributing more than half of the daily cases to the national caseload.

On Wednesday, out of the 14 districts seven districts of Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Kollam, and Kottayam reported more than 2000 cases.

Ernakulam 4,048 cases, followed by Thrissur 3,865, Kozhikode 3,680, Malappuram 3,502, Palakkad 2,562, Kollam 2,479 and Kottayam 2,050 cases.

Kannur (1,930) Alappuzha (1,874), Thiruvananthapuram (1,700), Idukki (1,166) Pathanamthitta (1,008) and Wayanad reported 962 cases, a government release said.

Spike due to festivals?

Medical experts had predicted the state's TPR to go beyond 20% and the number of infections to rise after the festivals which were celebrated in the last few weeks.

After Bakrid celebrations, during which restrictions were relaxed for a few days, Kerala has been reporting more than or close to 20,000 cases almost every day.

Now after Onam celebrations in the state, Kerala suddenly saw a jump of nearly 30% in a single day taking the daily number of COVID-19 cases to over 31,000.

What Central team said?

A six-member team was deputed by the Centre to look into the high number of COVID-19 infections in Kerala.

The team reported lapses in home isolation protocols, contact-tracing measures and a low number of RT-PCR tests as the reason behind high numbers.