Thiruvananthapuram, July 16 Even as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is being slammed by the Congress and the BJP over Kerala's Covid test positivity rate (TPR)hovering in the 10 per cent range, he on Friday, informed Prime Minister Narendra that things are under control in the state.
In the online meeting called by Modi of Chief Ministers of states having high number of daily cases, Vijayan contended that one reason why Kerala continues to have a high TPR is because the onset of the second wave of Covid hit the state later than the rest of the country.
He pointed out that Kerala has done well to reduce the TPR which stood at 30 per cent to 10 per cent and will continue to ensure that it is brought down further.
Vijayan also asked for more supply of vaccines.
Vijayan, in a statement, pointed out that 13,750 people turned Covid positive after 1,30,390 samples were tested in the past 24 hours with the TPR reaching 10.55 per cent.
The state has 1,21,944 active cases, while 10,697 people turned negative taking the total cured to 29,93,242.
As many as 130 Covid deaths were registered, taking the toll to 15,155.
In a related development, the Congress has decided to launch a campaign to ascertain Covid deaths in the state as it alleged that Kerala has shown over 20,000 Covid deaths in the non-Covid category.
Senior Congress MP Benny Behanan has taken charge of the campaign and has asked all those who have complaints about registering Covid deaths to get in touch with him in his social media pages.
Meanwhile, pn Friday, Vijayan also held a meeting with the traders' body who are up in arms over the "unscientific" lockdown norms with regards to opening of shops.
T.Nasirudhin, who participated in the meeting, expressed confidence in the assurance of Vijayan and hence they have decided not to launch a protest, and instead wait for the government to come out with fresh guidelines.
Following requests from various quarters, the government agreed to ease lockdown norms on account of Bakrid and allowed shops listed in Category A, B and C areas to open on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
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