Renewed Covid spike: Where did Kerala go flawed?

Express News Service
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The variety of recent Covid circumstances in Kerala has been rising for the previous few weeks, elevating issues concerning the trajectory of the pandemic scenario. A gentle rise in circumstances over the previous two weeks after a drastic drop because the finish of May has additionally put a query mark on the containment measures adopted by the state. Health specialists have cautioned concerning the compounding impact of the regular rise within the variety of sufferers contaminated by the virus on a regular basis.

The state on Wednesday reported 15,600 new circumstances — 14% larger than the earlier week. With 148 extra Covid deaths being confirmed on the day, the full toll within the state crossed the 14,000-mark. The state examined 1,50,630 samples within the final 24 hours, 20,000 greater than the day before today. Yet, the check positivity price stood at 10.36%. 

Kerala has the best variety of new circumstances among the many states and extra TPR than larger states. Experts stated the current scenario is prime for additional uptick, if not one other wave. “Daily cases are likely to touch the 20,000-25,000 mark soon, as the curve is still rising steeply. A large section of the susceptible population and low reach of vaccination have made the situation vulnerable for an increase in cases. The trend was, in fact, evident from the close examination of data from the past two weeks,” stated immunologist and public well being knowledgeable Dr Padmanabha Shenoy.

The dynamic nature of the pandemic requires a dynamic technique on the a part of the federal government. The variety of assessments carried out per day and get in touch with tracing have come down after crossing the height of the second wave. While most districts have been given fastened targets for testing, the technique has been criticised as unsuitable to take care of a pandemic scenario.

“The spread has increased due to low number of testing and poor contact tracing measures. We have not been able to crush the curve. Instead, the flattening of the curve resulted in the high number of new positive cases and high TPR. The number of people with serious illness has not come down as we expected,” stated  Indian Medical Association state secretary Dr Gopikumar P.

Health economist Rijo M John stated a TPR above 10% requires extra testing to be achieved. “By increasing the number of tests, you can always find more cases and isolate them more. It will help in controlling the spread. It is still a mystery why Kerala has high plateauing,” he stated.The excessive plateauing of latest Covid circumstances and TPR within the state has prompted the Union well being ministry to ship an knowledgeable group to observe the scenario. The two-member central group additionally steered measures to strengthen contact tracing and quarantining on the primary day of their go to on Monday. 

“The plateauing of TPR at 10% is due to the high infectivity of the virus as compared to the plateauing of around 5% in the first wave. It is likely to decrease by the fourth week of July. But we are expecting a third wave by August,” stated Dr S S Santhoshkumar, deputy superintendent, Government Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram.