After a lull in daily testing, Kerala again saw daily Covid case numbers rise high, with 24,296 people testing Covid positive after 1,34,706 samples were tested.

The state leads the country in new daily cases, the number of active cases, and the number of daily Covid deaths. The daily test positivity rate has reached 18.04 percent, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in a statement.

For the past three days, the daily positive cases had fallen after the state was celebrating Onam and fewer tests were being conducted.

The day’s figures were released shortly after a high-level meeting of Vijayan and others to assess the situation decided that existing Covid protocols would not be tinkered with now and that the already announced Sunday total lockdown in the state will continue.

Vijayan’s statement also said that 19,349 people turned negative, taking the total active cases to 1,59,335. The day also saw a high of 173 Covid deaths, taking the total death toll to 19,757.

118 of the new COVID patients were returned from outside the state. 22,775 people contracted the virus through contact.

Meanwhile, the Kerala government is aiming to inoculate everyone above 18 years of age with the first dose of COVID vaccine by September end and directions have been given to all districts to formulate vaccination plans.

The directions were issued by the state health minister Veena George in an emergency meeting of her department that was held to review the increasing number of COVID-19 patients in the state and ensure vaccination of as many people as possible a post on her Facebook page.

In the meeting, the minister directed that special care should be taken to avoid delay in the administration of vaccines and said the issue of shortage of syringes was being addressed. According to her FB post, she said that the Centre has promised 1.11 crore vaccines to the state and more doses will be available as soon as possible.

She also said post-Onam the number of coronavirus cases was expected to increase and therefore, hospitals need to be equipped to deal with any such situation. Besides, in anticipation of the third wave of COVID-19, arrangements are being made to deal with that by setting up oxygen beds, ICUs, and ventilators in hospitals at the district level, she noted.