Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister, claimed on Thursday that the world was following the coronavirus defence mechanism initiated by Kerala. “Our strategy has earned widespread appreciation and even advanced countries are replicating the Kerala model in countering the Covid-19 pandemic,” Vijayan said in his media briefing on Thursday.
Since the web portal of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was facing technical hitch, the Chief Minister said the update of the Covid-19 situation on Thursday was not available.
“As per the data available up to noon, 506 new Covid-19 patients have been identified in the State. Two persons succumbed to the pandemic while 794 patients who were recovered fully got discharged from hospitals. Out of the 506 persons who were diagnosed with
Covid-19 on Thursday, 375 persons contracted the pandemic through local transmission,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that Thursday marked completion of six months of coronavirus in the State. “It was on January 30 that the first instance of the pandemic came to the notice of the government. But my government was fully prepared to meet any eventuality in the second week of January itself.All international organisations have praised the steps taken by Kerala to counter the pandemic,” said the Chief Minister who was in a jovial mood from the word go.
