COVID-19 | Case graph hitting another plateau in Kerala

State reports 22,064 new cases in 1,63,098 sample tests

July 29, 2021 08:51 pm | Updated July 30, 2021 11:09 am IST - Thiruvananthapuram

KOCHI, Kerala, 19/07/2021: Police put barricades at the entrance of the Broadway to restrict four wheelers entry and manage crowd on Monday. Photo : Thulasi Kakkat/The Hindu

KOCHI, Kerala, 19/07/2021: Police put barricades at the entrance of the Broadway to restrict four wheelers entry and manage crowd on Monday. Photo : Thulasi Kakkat/The Hindu

The COVID-19 case graph, which began ascending two weeks ago, seems to be hitting another plateau, with the State reporting between 15,000-20,000 cases daily for over a week in a row.

The epidemic curve in the second wave, after hitting the peak in May second week, had been on a protracted plateau in the post-lockdown phase with the State reporting around 10,000-12,000 cases daily. It is from this phase that the case graph has now started to rise.

While an increase in disease transmission was expected in the post-lockdown phase, it is crucial that it is contained at this phase so that it does not signal the beginning of a third wave

Kerala has reported 22,064 cases on Thursday, when 1,63,098 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. The State has increased testing since the past three days, with an average of 1.5 lakh samples being tested daily. The test positivity rate (TPR) normally goes down when the number of tests are increased.

However, on Thursday, the TPR went up to 13.53%, indicating that disease transmission is indeed rising.

The State’s active case pool has been climbing steadily and rose to 1,54,820, with 16,649 patients reported to have recovered on the day.

The official cumulative COVID-19 case fatality now stands at 16,585, with 128 deaths, most of which occurred in the past few days, added to the official list.

The number of patients newly admitted to hospitals with COVID was 2,809. Though daily hospitalisation has been climbing, there has been no substantial increase in ICU or ventilator occupancy.

With the recovery rate remaining steady, total hospitalisations of those with moderate or severe COVID has remained more or less steady around 25,000 since weeks. However, this figure needs close watch as it has begun to climb and now stands at 27,480.

Total ICU admissions of critically ill patients, in both public and private hospitals increased to 1,936. The number of patients requiring ventilator support was 704.

The cumulative case burden ever since the pandemic began now stands at 33,49,365 cases.

Among districts, Malappuram reported the highest number of new cases with 3,679 cases, Thrissur, 2,752, Kozhikode 2,619, Ernakulam 2,359, Palakkad 2,034, Kollam 1,517, Kannur 1,275, Thiruvananthapuram 1,222, Kottayam 1,000, Alappuzha 991, Kasaragod 929, Wayanad 693, Pathanamthitta 568 and Idukki 426.

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