New Delhi: Flagging the high number of weekly fatalities due to COVID-19 in Kerala, the Central health ministry on Saturday urged the State to initiate necessary steps to address the spread of the infection and fatalities.
Kerala reported 2,118 deaths in the past week compared to the 1,890 fatalities posted in the week that ended November 26. In his letter to the State, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan pointed out that there was an increase in fatalities in four districts.
Thrissur and Malappuram districts logged 128 and 109 deaths, respectively, between November 26 and December 2. COVID-19 toll has been increasing in Kozhikode and Kollam districts as well. Kerala has reported 40.951 deaths due to COVID-19 till Saturday.
The Centre also pointed out the surge in COVID-19 infection in the State, which reported 1.71 lakh fresh cases in the month ending December 3. Kerala accounted for 55.8 percent of the country's total active caseload. The weekly positive rate has been high in the State's 13 districts, Bhushan said in the letter.
Also, 13 out of 14 districts are reporting a high quantum of weekly new cases in the state. Districts of concern in the week ending December 2 are Thiruvananthapuram (5,541), Ernakulam, (4,976), Kozhikode (3,676), Thrissur (2,903) and Kottayam (2,478)," Bhushan noted.
Four districts – Thiruvananthapuram (11.61%), Wayanad (11.25%), Kozhikode (11%) and Kottayam (10.81 percent) – are showing high weekly positivity of more than 10%, while nine districts are reporting weekly positivity between 5-10%.
The Centre asked the State to send positive samples for genome sequencing in a time-bound manner.
Besides Kerala, the Central Health Ministry has also asked Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir and Mizoram to take adequate measures to check the spread of the infection.
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