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Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the Covid situation appears to be on the mend with the test positivity ratio (TPR) looking down by six per cent from last week and daily new cases by a steeper margin of 21.9 per cent even as the State recorded 17,681 new cases on Wednesday.
The Chief Minister’s statement came on a day an unusually lower sample base of 97,070 was taken during a midweek. Recoveries totalled to 25,588, which was reflected in the number of inpatients in hospitals at 28,049, which too is on a steady decline.
Active case pool shrinks
The size of active case pool has come down to below the two-lakh figure, and logged in at 1,90,740 on Wednesday. A major outlier was in the form of deaths compiled (including backlog) at an unusually high 208, taking the cumulative number so far during the pandemic to 22,987.
Another notable facet of the day was the churn in the list of daily new cases being reported from districts with Thiruvananthapuram (2,143) topping it, signalling a shift in the axis of transmission to the southern part of the State. It was followed by Kottayam (1,702); Kozhikode (1,680); and Ernakulam (1,645) while Thrissur (1,567); Palakkad (1,558); and, significantly, Malappuram (1,372) surprised with a drop in cases.
Also read: Kerala mulls graded easing of Covid lockdown
Meanwhile, the State achieved a milestone in vaccination with 80.17 per cent of the eligible population receiving the first dose (2,30,09,295) and 32.17 per cent, the second dose (92,31,936, and cumulatively 3.22 crore). In the above 45+ age group, these are 94 per cent and 52 per cent, respectively.
The Health Department expects to cover the entire population in the age group of 18+ by the end of this month in terms of the first dose. “If things proceed as per our expectations, we should be able to complete administering of the second dose in the next two-three months,” the Chief Minister said.
A sero prevalence study instituted by the Health Department is proceeding well in all 14 districts in the State, the Chief Minister said. Its results should be out by the end of this month, which will give indication of the scale and manner of spread of the virus and guide the State’s vaccination schedule.
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