Kerala Extends Lockdown till June 16, Covid Toll Crosses 10K

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
The lockdown in Kerala, which was to have ended on June 9, has been extended by a week, while the Covid death toll in the state crossed 10,000 on Monday.

In a statement issued here, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that 9,313 people turned positive after 70,569 samples were sent for testing in the past 24 hours, taking the total active cases to 1,47,830.

The day saw 221 Covid deaths, taking the total death toll to 10,157.

Vijayan had, last month, warned that the death rate has every chance to go up as the number of daily cases last month had crossed 40,000.

The lockdown extension came though Vijayan last week indicating that the stringent restrictions would be withdrawn if the test positivity rate for three successive days comes below 15 per cent and the total number of active case drops below two lakh.

But despite the two parameters being accomplished and Monday’s TPR at 13.20 per cent, the high-level official meeting here decided to extend the lockdown till June 16.

The day, however, saw 21,921 people turn negative, taking the total cured to 24,83,992.

Across the state there were 6,32,868 people under observation which included 39,061 people in hospitals, while the state had 889 hotspots.