In view of the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, domiciliary care centres will be reopened in all local bodies, a meeting of elected representatives of people, health workers, and officials of local bodies with a high test positivity rate (TPR) convened by District Collector Jafar Malik has decided.
District panchayat president Ullas Thomas gave instructions to monitor disease spread at the panchayat-level. Panchayat secretaries should review the activities, including those of ward-level vigilance committees, and submit reports to the deputy panchayat director.
Micro-containment zones and clusters should be announced at the lower level and mobile COVID testing centres should be deployed in panchayats falling in the C (with a TPR of 10-15%) and D (with TPR above 15%) categories
‘Third wave on’
Meanwhile, Dr. Anitha, Ernakulam district surveillance unit cluster team leader and COVID nodal officer, said the third wave had already begun. She said there was a need to be more cautions as the third wave had begun even before the second one abated.
“Men were more affected than women and fatality was more among those aged above 50 years,” she said at a webinar organised by the Field Outreach Bureau of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, NSS unit of Law College, Ernakulam, and health wing of the District Medical Office.
Over 19,000 active cases
The district on Thursday recorded 2,359 fresh cases of COVID-19 with a TPR of 13.42%, taking the total number of active patients in the district to 19,931. Five new patients are health workers. Payipra recorded 88 new cases followed by Thrikkakara 73, Vadakkekara 63, Thirpunithura 60, Edathala 55, Cheranalloor 54, Koovappady 53 and Manjapra 51.
A total of 2,026 patients tested negative on Thursday. Fresh hospital admissions were 126. A fresh batch of 17,580 samples was sent for testing.
A communication from the district PRD said Ernakulam had 2,420 vacant beds to treat COVID-19 patients. Among the 1,754 beds in the domiciliary care centres, 839 remained unoccupied.
