Covid cases rise in Kerala, Centre sends team

Covid cases rise in Kerala, Centre sends team

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:30.07.2021

In the wake of a sharp and persistent increase in daily new cases of Covid-19 in Kerala, the Centre has sent a high -evel team to the southern state to support in the effective public health interventions in order to contain the infection spread.

Kerala recorded on Thursday more than 22,000 new Covid-19 cases for the second consecutive day. The state with an active case load of 1.54 lakh is contributing 37.1% of the total active cases, with a growth rate of 1.41 (percent/ nos??) in the last seven days. The state is also reporting a high positivity of 12.93%, while six of its districts have more than 10% weekly positivity.

Central sources said Kerala, in mid-May 2021 was reporting a high of more than 43,000 new cases a day and this began to decline there on to the first week of June. But from June third week to date, daily new cases are rising in a gradual and consistent manner with Kerala recently reporting more than 22,000 new cases in a day. This is more than 50% of the peak witnessed by Kerala in mid-May.

The health ministry is concerned that since June first week, Kerala is also reporting a high number of daily Covid deaths. In the first week, daily new Covid deaths were 227 and remain more than 150 deaths a day. Of the 4,00,000-odd active cases in India, 1.5 lakh are in Kerala alone. There is a 13% increase In average daily new cases in the last eight weeks. There is also concern over a dip in testing in the July 22-28 week.

The Centre has also warned the state of rising number of cases and advised stringent containment measures along with compliance to physical distancing and other Covid-appropriate norms, an official said.

The team sent to the state is headed by Dr S K Singh, director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), one of the country's top experts in monitoring public health.

“The team shall work closely with the state health departments, take stock of the on ground situation and recommend necessary public health interventions to contain the large number of cases being reported,” the health ministry said.

The Centre is also concerned as the latest national sero-prevalence survey shows only 44% of Kerala’s population above the age of six years had so far been infected by Covid-19. This implies that majority of the population is susceptible to the infection and in the absence of effective containment measure, the spread can be wider.