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The rate of Covid-19 spread in Kerala has come down when compared to the first and second week of January, said state health minister Veena George on Tuesday.
The state comes even as Kerala on Tuesday reported 51,887 new coronavirus infections after testing 1,21,048 samples. The positivity rate for the last seven days is 47.6% and the cumulative caseload in the state has reached 60,77,556.
Despite this, the minister said the state witnessed a 45% spread in the first week of January which went high up to 215% in the third week of the month.
"However, the rate of the spread came down to 71% in the fourth week of January and again decreased to 165 in the last week," George said.
She informed that only 42.47% of the total ICU beds in the state are being used by both Covid and non-Covid patients. "At least 845 of the ventilators are vacant now," she said.
The state health department also issued new guidelines for the hospitals with regard to the circumstances of Omicron spread.
"The patients who are admitted in the hospitals, or in emergency need to be tested for Covid-19 only if they show symptoms. The doctors can suggest for the Covid-19 tests if necessary," the minister said, adding that hospitals must not refuse treatment to any patient if they have the facilities.
Covid update
Kerala saw 51,887 fresh infections on Tuesday after dipping to 42,154 a day ago.
The state on Tuesday also reported 1,205 deaths which raised the total fatalities in the state to 55,600, according to a government release.
Of the total, 24 were reported in the last 24 hours, 118 were those which occurred in the last few days but were not recorded due to late receipt of documents and 1,063 were designated as Covid-19 deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and the directions of the Supreme Court
With 40,383 more people recovering from the virus since Sunday, the total recoveries reached 56,53,376. However, as the number of recoveries were less than the new Covid-19 cases, the active cases in the state rose to 3,67,847.
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