Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 13 (IANS): Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Thursday said that 59 more people turned Omicron positive, taking the state's total tally to 480 and asked all to ensure that utmost caution is exercised.

She said of the total cases, 332 people came from low risk countries, 90 were from high risk countries, 52 got it from primary contacts whereas six came from other states in the country.

George said one way to tackle this is to ensure that safe home care practices are practised when someone turns positive.

"If there are no other issues for a person who turns positive, then home quarantine is the best and for that, there are accepted protocols to be followed and the primary thing is to see that others in the house do not get affected. There should be no direct or indirect contact with the affected. The positive person should take warm liquids at frequent intervals besides gargling and 8 hours of sleep is a must," she said.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, with a good number of medical professionals turning positive at the famed Sree Chithra Thirunal Institute of Medical Technology in the state capital, numerous surgeries were posted for a later date.

Likewise, a premier engineering college in the state capital city reported a high number of students turning positive which led to suspension of offline classes.

George also warned that strict action will be taken against those institutions which does not inform about the Covid numbers. Action will soon be taken against a medical institution at Pathanamthitta district for withholding information and it was later found to have developed an Omicron cluster, she added.