Amid lockdown Kerala logs 29,836 new Covid-19 cases

As Kerala observed a complete lockdown on Sunday, the state reported another spike clocking 29,836 fresh Covid-19 cases with a high test positivity rate (TPR) of 19.67 per cent, the state health ministry said.

The Covid-19 graph seems to be hitting another plateau with no sign of abating and the number of patients requiring ventilator support has risen from 883 to 915 and many hospitals have said there is a considerable hike in daily hospital admission. Total hospitalisation with moderate or severe Covid-19 symptoms crossed 31,000 on Sunday, on Saturday it was 29,523.

The number of active cases also rose to 2,12, 566 on Sunday from 2,04,086. Kerala reported 75 deaths in the last 24 hours taking the toll to 20,541, statistics released by the health ministry show. At least four districts reported more than 3000 cases-- Thrissur 3965, Kozhikode 3548, Malappuram 3195 and Ernakulam 3178. With Covid-19 cases shooting up, the state government has arranged a meeting of experts on Wednesday and another meeting with local body heads next Friday.

In the last five days the state has reported more 1.50 lakh new cases while in the last 24 hours the country reported 45,083 total cases with a TPR of 3%. The state’s daily contribution is more than 65 per cent to the total caseload of the country. Despite spiralling cases, CM Pinarayi Vijayan painted a rosy picture on Saturday citing a high vaccination rate (74 per cent got vaccinated) and low mortality rate, it is .5 against the national average of 1.34 per cent.

The Centre had given a strong warning to Kerala to ramp up its containment measures and increase its tests. Despite wide criticism it is yet to increase its RT-PCR tests while neighbouring Tamil Nadu conducted 1,63,230 tests with Karnataka 1,49, 393 while Kerala’s share was 73,138 on Friday. Many health experts have asked the state to shed its soft corner for antigen tests.