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In the midst of an ongoing war against the coronavirus pandemic, Kerala has sounded an alert about the annual outbreak of dengue and leptospirosis in the State. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that immediate and extreme measures are needed to prevent the situation from getting out of control.
Speaking to reporters in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, the Chief Minister said that the reported spike in dengue and leptospirosis cases at the Government Medical College Hospital, Kottayam in Central Kerala, is a matter of concern. He directed the district officials to ramp up garbage disposal and also to intensify source reduction and vector control drives.
Covid-19 situation improves, but CM issues warning
Meanwhile, the State continued to witness a steady decline in new Covid-19 positive cases, but Vijayan warned that this should not be taken as a signal to return to the pre-lockdown phase. “Far from it. There may not be any evidence of community transmission yet, but we cannot take any chance with a virus that can strike back at a place and time of its choice.”
Lifting restrictions on movement and public gathering could be a window for it to emerge from nowhere and start infecting people. This is something that the State cannot afford to countenance, after having done so well with the containment strategy overall.
New cases
Three positive cases were reported in the State on Monday, while the number of patients who tested negative was 19. Only two positive were reported the previous day, and the number of people recovering is comfortably ahead of those testing positive on a daily basis, a trend that the state would like to consolidate, the Chief Minister said.
Two of the new cases were from Kannur and contacts of imported cases. The other case was that of a person who had returned home to Palakkad from abroad. Of the 377 positive Covid-19 cases reported in the State since January 30, when the first patient arrived from Wuhan, only two had died while 197 had recovered.
Shortage of test kits
As on Monday, 178 are undergoing treatment in hospitals. Those being kept under surveillance have come down further to 1,12,183, of which 715 were in isolation wards in hospitals, while the rest were quarantined at home.
The Chief Minister said that testing numbers had improved to 1,000 samples on a daily average. But there were still issues with the supply of test kits provided by the Centre.
The private medical sector was an integral part of the health sector, and the government wanted to go hand-in-hand with it in the fight against Covid-19. Private hospitals should ensure that those who needed medical treatment for other diseases also are taken proper care of.
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