THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has decided to impose only local-level restrictions to curb the third wave of Covid as a total shutdown would trigger an economic crisis in the state, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said. “A total shutdown will affect life as well as livelihood. So, the state has adopted a scientific strategy (for tackling Covid) without inconveniencing the public.
The government has imposed different sets of restrictions in each region taking into account herd immunity, rate of vaccination and availability of healthcare facilities,” Pinarayi said in an article. The chief minister noted that the growth rate of new cases has recorded a huge jump compared to the previous week. However, medical facilities have been ramped up as part of tackling the third wave of Covid.
A total of 194 new ICU units have been set up in 25 hospitals and 146 high dependence units (HDUs) have come up in 19 hospitals. While 36 new pediatric ICUs have been added to 10 hospitals, a total of 381 new ventilators have also been set up, Pinarayi said. The chief minister said that of the 1.99 lakh active cases in the state, 96.9 % are under home isolation as they are either asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms. Only 2.7% of Covid patients in the state require hospitalisation.
Of these, 1.6% require normal beds and 0.6% need oxygen beds. While 0.4% are in Covid ICU, only 0.1% require ventilator support, he said. In terms of vaccination, all targeted adults (above 18 years) in the state have received the first dose of vaccine. Also, 83% of the adult population in the state have taken the second dose vaccine as well.
Around 33% of the people eligible for preventive dose have also been inoculated. The vaccination rate in the 15-18 year age group is 66%, the chief minister said. “More than five crore doses of Covid vaccine have been distributed across various categories. This has enabled the state to tackle the third wave of Covid with confidence,” Pinarayi said.
A large number of people have contracted the disease and have recovered. This has led to hybrid immunity in majority of the population, he added. The chief minister said that a high test positivity rate (TPR) of over 40% need not be a matter of concern as only symptomatic people are being tested now unlike the random testing method adopted earlier. He added that TPR does not have the relevance it had earlier following the change in testing protocol.