Kerala Health Minister Veena George said that the Kerala model is not failing and the system is quite successful and hopes that cases will reduce in the next couple of weeks.
Veena George told CNN-News18, “In Kerala, we have developed a system where we have always tried to keep the number of cases below the medical capacity threshold. We have proved that this strategy is successful. The Kerala model is not failing. We were always trying to delay the peak because we wanted our people to get medical aid, medical facility and enough oxygen. This was the case in the first wave also. In Kerala, during the wave, there were no cases of people dying without oxygen or without getting a hospital bed. We have proved that our system is quite successful and we are hoping that the cases will reduce in the next couple of weeks.”
She added that the TPR is also around 10 per cent that is because the State is doing more targeted testing. Health Minister said, “If a person is found positive, we trace out all their contacts. Primary, secondary and tertiary contacts and test them. We have categorised testings according to the TPR. Where there is a triple lockdown, we have decided to increase the test 10 times. This is what is expected in our system.”
She added that there are more susceptible persons in Kerala when we compare with other States.
Veena George said, “The central team expressed satisfaction to all our decisions and the way we implemented. They also said that this TPR was quite expected. They appreciated our vaccination process and all the decisions we took to control the disease.”
The Minister added that the State requires more vaccines. “We have the facility to vaccinate more than 2.5 lakh people every day but we can’t because we are not getting that many vaccines. We require more vaccines in the State especially since there is a lot of susceptible population,” Veena George said.
The Minister said that Kerala is following the ICMR and WHO guidelines while reporting the Covid deaths.
“We have started real-time entry of Covid deaths from the hospital. I think it’s the first time anywhere in India where deaths are being reported from hospitals themselves and we began this from June 16. I have asked all the district medical officers to clear the backlogs of deaths if there is any. I am hoping we will clear the backlogs by this Tuesday,” the Minister said.
On Sunday, Kerala reported 12,220 Covid positive cases with about 1,14,844 samples tested in the past 24 hours. 12,502 recovered and the TPR was at 10.48 per cent. The State also reported 97 deaths in the past 24 hours and with this, the total number of deaths in the State is 14,586.
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