Comments
Thiruvananthapuram, September 2
Kerala need not worry unduly over the rising daily Covid-19 cases and could likely see the transmission peak sooner than later, according to a consensus view of leading virologists, public health experts, Covid medical practitioners and administrators on call here late on Wednesday.
Since the state is on an intensive vaccination drive, the cases should plateau during the short- to medium period. The number of hospital admissions remains few despite the rising daily new cases. It indicates that the situation has not gone out of control yet, they said.
Reviews Covid situation
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had called the meeting online to review the public health situation in the state arising from the pandemic and explore a course correction. The meeting advised the state to scrap the night curfew currently in vogue, as also the Sunday lockdown.
Daily new Covid cases in Kerala bounce back to 30,203
It may also reopen schools and allow social and economic sectors to resume activity, subject to Covid-appropriate behaviour. The consensus view largely endorsed the state’s Covid defence strategy but felt that antigen tests should be replaced with RT-PCR tests.
More sessions in future, says CM
The online session saw the participation of experts from abroad, too. Among those present were Bharat Pankhania, Senior Clinical Lecturer, University of Exeter Medical School; David Peters, Edgar Berman Chair in International Health, John Hopkins University; Devi Sridhar, Chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh; Ajay Mahal, Professor of Health Economics and Global Health Systems Research, University of Melbourne; Sungsup Ra, Chair of the Education Sector Group, ADB; David Wilson, World Bank Team Leader for Covid-19; RR Gangakhedkar, Head (retd), Epidemiology, ICMR; Anurag Agrawal, Director, IGIB, CSIR; Jacob John, Professor (retd) of Clinical Virology, CMC, Vellore; Sanjay Pujari, Director and Chief Consultant, Institute of Infectious Diseases, Pune; virologist Shahid Jameel; and epidemiologists Giridhar Babu and Swarup Sarkar.
TPR in Kerala stays at 18.76%; 32,803 new cases emerge
The meeting is said to have endorsed the state’s ‘transparent and meticulous’ Covid data-keeping. The Chief Minister said the meeting was an eye-opener for the State government and gave a new purpose to its Covid strategy. More such brainstorming sessions would be held in future, he added.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.