THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The health department rejected Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's directive to increase RTPCR testing in the state. The report of the health department asserted that antigen testing is effective and increasing RTPCR testing is an additional burden.

Health department's weekly report mentioned that the transmission of COVID-19 were more in four districts. Although the government had earlier said they would conduct one lakh tests per day, it has not been implemented yet. The results of 33,579 tests were obtained yesterday.