Thiruvananthapuram, April 7(BPNS)

Kerala has made it mandatory for the people travelling from other states to the state to undergo one week quarantine commencing from April 8. This is in the wake of a spike in Covid 19 cases.

This was decided at a review meeting held by the Chief Secretary VP Joy on Wednesday to assess the situation after the assembly election. Health experts have warned that the spike could be due to people being infected with mutant variants. The meeting also decided to ensure strict adherence to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour such as wearing masks in public and maintaining social distancing. Magistrates and police will be deployed to ensure compliance.

The state recorded a rising trend in new COVID-19 cases for the past week and the number of active cases is just below 30,000. As many as 3502 new cases were reported on Wednesday taking the total number of cases to 11,44,594. The Test Positivity Rate was at 5.78 per cent. There were 16 deaths reported and the total toll reached 4710.

The crowds that gathered during election campaigns were considered a major risk for the state which saw the plateauing of the COVID-19 curve by the beginning of March. Poll agents and people in their contact list have been advised to undergo RT-PCR testing as a containment strategy.