THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala is being blamed for the transmission of COVID-19 without understanding things, said Health Minister K K Shailaja. Local elections led to the spread of the disease. The minister said police action would be strengthened in the state for the control of the disease. She also said testing of the disease is not low in Kerala.

Meantime, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said 70% of India's Covid-19 cases are in Maharashtra and Kerala. In the last 24 hours, 11,556 new cases have been confirmed. So far, 153 cases of UK variant have been detected in India. 123 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours. Of that, 20 are in Kerala. With this, the total number of COVID deaths in the country rose to 1,53,847.

Although the pandemic is declining across the country, it is increasing in Kerala. 1,05,533 people were diagnosed with the disease in the country in one week. Of these, 41,918 are in Kerala. 39.7 per cent of the total patients are in Kerala. When the number of patients in the country decreased by 18,568 in a week, in Kerala it rose by 2463. In the last seven days, no cases of the disease have been reported in 147 districts of the country, 18 districts in 14 days, six districts in 21 days and 21 districts in 28 days, the Union Health Minister said.