Amid Covid spike, people mask up again in Kerala

With the increase in COVID-19 cases across the country, people have once again resorted to wearing face masks.

In Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram, people were seen wearing masks in public places.

On Saturday, the state government made wearing masks mandatory for pregnant women and elderly people.

Joel a Nursing student while talking to ANI near General Hospital said, "I have been wearing the mask for one month now, not because of the notification from the government side, but as I'm always at hospital premises and due to the rising cases. We need to be more vigilant."

Sreekutty a housewife said, "It's been a few days since I started wearing the mask, I have already some wheezing issues. So I thought it's better to take precautions. I'm also planning to take the booster dose."

Pradeep, a former health worker says, "I came from Mayyazhi and I'm seeing a lot of people wearing masks, and I'm also a little scared. I was unaware of the current situation but while travelling on the train also I saw people started wearing masks."

Today, many of the states conducted Covid mock drills in their respective districts and cities following the centres order. On Friday, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who chaired a review meeting with states, urged them to conduct mock drills of all hospital infrastructure on April 10 and 11 and review the health preparedness with district administrations and health officials.

Kerala logged 859 new cases in the last 24 hours, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday. The total number of active cases stands at 12,433 in Kerala.

A total of 5,880 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in India in the last 24 hours, slightly increasing from Sunday's count of 5,357, according to Union Health Ministry data released on Monday. The overall active cases currently stand at 35,199, as of Monday with a daily positivity rate of 6.91 percent, it said. (ANI)