A small but steady increase in COVID-19 cases in the State over the past two weeks has had the Health department issuing an alert to districts to keep an eye on hospitalisations and ICU admissions.
Health Minister Veena George who chaired a high-level review meeting on COVID-19 on Wednesday, said that COVID-19 cases were showing a slight increase, with more cases being reported in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam districts. The State had 1,026 active COVID-19 cases at present, with 111 people admitted in hospitals across districts.
In proportion to the increase in cases, hospitalisations also showed a slight increase over the previous week
A week ago, the Centre had written to Kerala that the COVID-19 situation in the State needed close examination at the district and sub-district level as COVID-19 cases seemed to be rising in the State. The State was asked to focus on the implementation of COVID-19 preventive and management guidelines
The official statement by Ms. George said that all districts had been asked to increase disease surveillance, particularly influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI).
Ms. George said that the COVID-19 situation was being monitored in a daily basis by the State and that while there seemed to be an uptick in cases, COVID-19 clusters had not been reported from anywhere, indicating that while the virus was in circulation in the community, the transmission seemed to be within control.
However, all districts and hospitals have been asked to prepare surge capacity plans so that as soon as cases hit the threshold, surge plans can be activated. Hospitals have been asked to earmark ICUs and ventilators for COVID-19 cases. COVID patients have not gone up in Medical Colleges, the statement said.
The State will enhance genomic testing of COVID-19 samples to identify if any new strains are in circulation, triggering the surge. Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd., has been asked to stock up on COVID-19 testing kits and necessary drugs
Ensuring that Covid-appropriate behaviour is followed by all in public spaces, the most important being the use of masks in crowded/closed spaces and hospitals, is the most effective precautionary measure that can be adopted against COVID-19 as well as all other respiratory infections.
Pregnant women, children, elderly and those with serious co-morbidities should observe all universal precautions, including masking, maintaining cough etiquette and hand washing, whenever they are outside
Senior Health officials in the State said that fever cases in the current season had been up three fold, when compared to the previous season and that with this being the season of influenza also, it was difficult to clinically distinguish COVID-19 cases.
All patients were presenting mostly with flu-like symptoms in OP clinics — fever, running nose, sore throat or head ache and patients were tested on the basis of the severity of symptoms. The State is doing some 3,000-5,000 Covid-19 tests daily, a majority of which is done in the private sector.
