The next two to three weeks are crucial for the district in managing COVID-19 and the restrictions imposed by the State government will be enforced strictly, District Collector S. Suhas said in an online briefing on Monday.
The progression of cases in the district was a cause for concern, he said. He said that the entire week from March 29 to April 4 had seen 2,024 new cases, a figure that the district was now seeing in about two days. The test positivity rate (TPR) in the same week was 4.1%, but on Sunday, the district saw a TPR of 8.79%, which was twice the figure from the first week of April.
Of the 214 ICUs in the district (88 in government facilities and 126 in private ones), 90 were occupied by both COVID and non-COCID patients. Of the 126 ventilators, 25 were occupied. ICUs were currently seeing 30% occupancy, but if the situation worsened, there could be issues, the Collector said.
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So far, 5,79,129 doses of the vaccine had been administered. Of this, 4,97,624 people had taken the first dose, and 75,509 the second dose.
Among people over the age of 45 years, 3,79,700 doses were given. This was about 35% of the targeted coverage of 11,76,350 people over 45 years in the district.
He urged people to follow restrictions imposed by the State government, including that of limiting participants in indoor functions to 100 people and in outdoor functions to 200, and taking food packets home instead of serving food at the venue of a function. He also appealed to restaurants to follow the restriction of allowing only 50% occupancy. “To prevent crowding in hospitals, people must use online consultation as far as possible.
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“The transport department will be given directions to prevent overcrowding in buses. Social distancing must be maintained at the beach. If cases increase more restrictions will be necessary,” the Collector said.
He also appealed to people not to step out after 9 p.m., though a night curfew was not in place.