Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): The spread of COVID-19 has been steadily rising in Kerala, putting pressure on the state’s health care system.
Data indicates that COVID-19 positivity is shooting up to a point where the health system in Kerala is finding it overwhelming to handle. Going by the daily number of COVID-19 positive cases, Kerala occupies the third position, trailing behind Maharashtra and Karnataka respectively. As per the data on active case-load until Tuesday, there are 3,56,872 active COVID-19 cases in Kerala. In Maharashtra, there are 6,59,013 cases while Karnataka has 4,44,754 cases.
Another alarming fact is that Kerala's Ernakulam, with 54,867 cases, currently houses the highest number of active cases in the country. On Tuesday, at least 5,000 cases were reported in the district.
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Health officials warn that the number of COVID-19 patients may rise above 50,000 per day in Kerala. Similarly, the active caseload is expected to rise up to five lakh cases. Preparing for the worst, the health department has been making arrangements on a war footing.
Another challenge faced by Kerala is the dip in the recovery rate. At present, Kerala stands sixth among Indian states in the number of persons recovering from the disease. Though the discharge policy has been updated -- discharging patients with mild or moderate symptoms so as to reduce the burden on the health care system -- the change does not seem to reflect on the numbers.
As per the state’s COVID data, 17,01,979 people have contracted the virus in Kerala. The only relief for Kerala remains to be the reduced fatality rate compared to other states. The official COVID death toll stands at 5,507. This happens to be the lowest number of deaths among the Indian states. However, with the second wave hitting the state, the fatality rate is rising. As many as 248 COVID deaths have been reported in the state in the last five days. The number of fresh COVID positive cases reported in these five days are 1,67,995.
