KeralaChief Secretary V P Joy has called a high-level meeting of the secretaries of all departments involved in COVID-19 control on Monday afternoon. The meeting will discuss the various strategies to be adopted in the wake of the increasing number of infected.
A complete lockdown like the one imposed last March has already been ruled out. The general consensus is that the Kerala economy would not survive another full lockdown. Even at the national level, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had rejected calls for a full lockdown.
Nonetheless, sources in the Health Department said there could be localised restrictions and even a night curfew. Shop timings, too, could be restricted. There could be curbs on dining out and cinema halls in containment zones.
"We have returned to a stage where social distancing and wearing of masks alone were enough to check the spread of the virus," a top Health official said. "During the 40-day election campaign, all precautions were thrown to the wind. Now we are harvesting the effects of our carelessness," the official added.
The growth in daily cases has been dramatic not just in the whole of the country, but in Kerala too. On April 1, the new cases were 2,798. On April 11, it shot up to nearly 7,000 (6,986). A test positivity rate (the number of infected for every 100 tested) that was below six on April 7, in a matter of just four days, jumped to 10.75 per cent on April 11.
The TPR is set to touch the highs reached during the October-November stretch last year. reach the earlier peak of 14 percent soon. (On October 10, last year, the TPR had touched a record high of 17.46.)
Not even a month ago, on March 15, the TPR was just about 3 per cent.
The situation looks disturbing in Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Thiruvananthapuram districts. Ernakulam, perhaps the most active district in the state, has the highest number of cases: 1,36,058. Close behind are Kozhikode (1,34,892), Malappuram (1,26,748) and Thiruvananthapuram (1,11,221). The capital distinct, however, has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in Kerala: 897.
Apart from stringent restrictions, vaccination is seen as the best bulwark against the virus. Though Kerala has done well, it now faces a shortage of vaccines. Health minister K K Shailaja said that most districts had stock only for two days.
Kerala still has a long way to go to make vaccination effective. At the moment, only 10.13 per cent of the population has been inoculated, and this includes 38,96,990 first doses and 4,53,976 second doses. (The projected population of Kerala is 3,65,69,000 as per report of National Commission on Population.)
The silver lining for Kerala is the low mortality rate. It has one of the lowest in the country, 0.41 per cent. However, Thiruvananthapuram district has a mortality rate of 0.81 per cent.
