Thiruvananthapuram: After Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan suspected attempts to undermine Kerala's fight on the pandemic, Health Minister Veena George has claimed that the State continues to be a model for COVID containment measures in the country despite a recent spike in cases.
Addressing the media here on Friday, Veena George said that Kerala's 'under-counting factor' was the best in the country. The minister has also claimed that there are sufficient vacancies of ICU and ventilator beds in government hospitals even as the active cases were going up.
“According to the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), Kerala's under-counting factor is six which is the best in the country. It is 33 nationally and in some states, the figures are as high as 100 and 120, which means only 1 in 100 or 120 actual cases are reported there,” said Veena George.
“Nearly 75% of ventilators are vacant while 43% of ICU beds are also unoccupied. As for DCCs (Domiciliary Care Centre), 82% of beds are vacant. In CFLTCs, 66% beds and in CSLTCs, 54% beds remain unoccupied,” said the minister.
'Improved testing'
Veena George said that Kerala's test-per-million figures were the best in the country. “On Thursday, we tested 1.67 lakh tests, including RTPCR and antigen and today we have tested over 1.7 lakh samples,” said the minister.
Above 18: Over 70% vaccinated
According to the minister 70.24% of persons above the age of 18 years in the State have received their first doses while 20.51% have already got their second shots.
The minister said that the government expects to vaccinate everyone above 18 with at least the first dose by September 30. “The Centre has promised to give 1.11 crore vaccines by the end of September 30 and that should help us to achieve the target.”
