Thiruvananthapuram, July 29 (PTI): Kerala Minister of Health Veena George on Thursday said the next two to three weeks were crucialfor the COVID-19 mitigation process in the State.

The Minister asked the people to avoid or reduce gatherings in view of the rising number of cases.

She told reporters here that the State government was identifying and treating the infected effectively.

"On Wednesday, we tested 1,96,902 samples and the test positivity rate (TPR) was 11.2 per cent. Today, we tested 1,63,098 samples and the TPR was 13.53 per cent," said the Minister.

She said the Centre was impressed with the mitigation process in Kerala.

"It's the Delta variant that has struck. In the second wave, we managed to maintainthe TPR at around 10 per cent. Though the TPR has increased slightly now, there is no need for any concern," she said.

She further said the latest sero survey result by the Union government showed that only 42 per cent of the population were projected to have developed anti-bodies which means more than 50 per cent of people are susceptible to the infection.

The Minister said a central team would be visiting the State on Friday.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)