Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 1 (IANS): In a move which will bring relief, Kerala on Tuesday announced all bed-ridden people above 45 will be administered the Covid vaccine at their homes.

The state, meanwhile, saw ita Covid test positivity rate at 15.13 per cent.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had, the other day, mentioned that one of the indicators to lift the lockdown norms would be the TPR staying below 15 per cent for three days.

At present, the lockdown is there till June 9, and given the TPR, it seems that the lockdown could be lifted next Wednesday.

A statement issued by Vijayan said that the day saw 19,760 people turn Covid positive after 1,30,594 samples were sent for testing in the past 24 hours, taking the total active cases to 2,02,426.

There were 24,117 recoveries, taking the total cured to 23,34,502 in the state. Despite all the favourable indicators, the number of deaths in the state on account of Covid continue to remain high as 194 fatalities were reported, taking the death toll to 9,009.

Another favourable indicator was the total number of people under observation at various places also has come down to 7,64,008, including 37,493 people at hospitals.

State Health Minister Veena George said that the her department is getting ready a detailed protocol in the way how those bed-ridden people in the above age 45 category would be given vaccine jabs at their residence.

The first step would be to prepare a list and once done, the process would begin and all those who arrive to give the vaccine would be wearing PPE kits and will wait for 30 minutes after the jab is given to see if everything is ok with the person who was inoculated.