Thiruvananthapuram: Despite a gradual decrease in the daily COVID-19 count, the hospitals in the state are still experiencing heavy rush of infected patients, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.
The situation at the hospitals would reverse after three weeks, the chief minister said, adding that the number of casualties, too, would reduce by the second week of June.
Kerala reported 196 deaths on Monday, while the number of those under treatment came down to 2,59,179 from close to 4.5 lakh recorded 10 days ago.
Vijayan credited the lockdown with checking the spread of the virus. He pegged the average test positive rate of the past three days at 22.6 per cent.
Explaining the rush in hospitals, the chief minister said about 91 per cent of patients had been under home treatment and nine per cent in hospitals until 10 days ago. Currently, about 14 per cent of patients are being treated in hospitals.
Do not wash N95 face masks
The chief minister said N95 face masks should ideally be used only a single time. Recommending against washing N95 face masks, he suggested buying five of them together. If the mask was not soiled after single use, it could be kept aside in a paper packet.
After using the other four fresh masks, the first one kept in the paper packet could be reused on the fifth day, Vijayan said. By following this procedure, an N95 mask could be used for a maximum of three times, he added.
