Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government on Monday decided to impose night curfew from 9 pm to 6 am from April 20 in view of the sharp increase in COVID-19 cases in the state.
The decision in this regard was taken at a high level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Dr V P Joy, this evening.
Kerala registered 13,644 fresh COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking active cases past the one lakh mark, while 21 more fatalities took the toll to almost 5,000, the state government said.
As many as 4,305 people have been cured, taking the total recoveries to 11,44,791 while the total infection caseload mounted to 12,53,068.
Kozhikode recorded the maximum of 2,022 cases, while Ernakulam, Malappuram, Thrissur and Kannur accounted for over 1,000 cases each.
As part of mass testing conducted on Friday and Saturday 3,00,971 samples were collected from various places.
In the last 24 hours ending 2 pm, 87,275 samples were tested and the test positivity rate was 15.63 per cent.
So far, 1,43,59,016 samples have been tested.
Three UK returnees have tested positive for the infection in the last 24 hours.
The government has also directed all domestic travellers coming to the state to undergo RT-PCR tests.
So far, 116 people who have returned from the UK (108), South Africa (7) and Brazil (1) have been found infected and 112 persons have recovered, a government press release said.
Eleven were infected with the mutant variant of the virus.
Of the positive cases, 38 are health workers, 230 had come from outside the state and 12,550 were infected through contact.
As many as 2,48,541 people are presently under observation, including 12,281 in hospitals.
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