Covid-19 surge prompts Centre to send team to Kerala

NEW DELHI: In the wake of a sharp and persistent increase in daily new Covid cases in Kerala, the Centre has sent a high level team to the southern state to support in the effective public health interventions in order to contain the infection spread.
Kerala recorded on Thursday more than 22,000 new cases for the second consecutive day. The state with an active case load of 1.54 lakh is contributing 37.1% of the total active cases, with a growth rate of 1.41 percent in the last seven days. The state is also reporting a high positivity of 12.93%, while six districts have more than 10% weekly positivity.
Central sources said Kerala, in mid-May 2021 was reporting a high of more than 43,000 new cases a day and this began to decline there on to the first week of June. But from June third week to date, daily new cases are rising in a gradual and consistent manner with Kerala recently reporting more than 22,000 new cases in a day. This is more than 50% of the peak witnessed by Kerala in mid-May.
The health ministry is concerned that since June first week, Kerala is also reporting a high number of daily Covid deaths. In the first week, daily new Covid deaths were 227 and remain more than 150 deaths a day. Of the 4,00,000-odd active cases in India, 1.5 lakh are in Kerala alone.
The Centre has also warned the state of rising number of cases and advised stringent containment measures along with compliance to physical distancing and other Covid-appropriate norms, an official said. The team sent to the state is headed by Dr S K Singh, director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), one of the country’s top experts in monitoring public health.