Govt withdraws work from home facility

11,776 new COVID-19 cases reported in State

Thiruvananthapuram

As the intensity of COVID-19 transmission lessens in the State, life seems to be returning to near-normal on all fronts.

Close on the heels of the re-opening of schools across the State, the State Government has now withdrawn the order which allowed special categories of employees (pregnant women and those with serious diseases) in Government and private institutions to work from home.

The GO issued on Wednesday, is being enforced with immediate effect.

The third wave, driven by the Omicron variant, which rose sharply in the first week of January, has been declining steadily since the past three weeks . The case graph, which climbed at a fast pace, seems to be declining at the same pace.

Given the high coverage of COVID-19 vaccination in the State and the significant proportion of the population with natural immunity from infection, the Government reckons that it is safe to allow people to get on with their work-life routine.

Children are back at schools and once the attendance in offices also regularaises, life can be put back on track at a faster pace.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, 11,776 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the State when 71,411 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

The State’s active case pool dropped to 1,13,798 on Wednesday, with 21,906 people reported to have recovered from the disease on the day. About 4.5% of the active cases are currently hospitalised.

On Wednesday, the total number of patients admitted with moderate or severe COVID in hospitals in the State declined to 5,165. New hospital admissions on the day was 765.

ICU occupancy is declining steadily. The current ICU occupancy of COVID patients in both public and private hospitals in the State on Wednesday dipped below 900 mark and stood at 846. The ventilator occupancy also decreased to 229.

On Wednesday, the State declared 143 COVID deaths, of which 25 occurred within the last 24 hours and 118 were deaths which occurred in the last few days but which were declared only in the last 24 hours. The State also added 195 pending COVID deaths to the official list of COVID fatalities. These are deaths which have now been accepted as COVID deaths by the Government as per the new guidelines of the Centre and following the appeals filed by families.

In all, the official cumulative COVID-19 case fatality in the State rose to 63,019.

The State’s cumulative COVID-19 burden now stands at 64,28,148 cases.

Among districts, Ernakulam reported the highest number of new cases with 2,944 cases, Thiruvananthapuram 1,562, Kottayam 1,062, Kollam 990, Kozhikode 934, Thrissur 828, Idukki 710, Alappuzha 578, Pathanamthitta 555, Wayanad 495, Kannur 444, Palakkad 438, Malappuram 419 and Kasaragod 264 cases.