NEW DELHI: The high number of Covid infections in vaccinated people in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala has caught the attention of a central team that recently visited Kerala, prompting it to launch an epidemiological enquiry into the curious scenario.
The district so far has reported 14,974 Covid cases in those who received one dose of the vaccine and 5,042 infections in those after two doses of vaccine, authorities said in a press briefing by the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday.
SK Singh, director of the National Centre for Disease Control who had led the 6-member team to Kerala said that the Centre has now asked the state for specifics such as the severity of disease in such cases, rate of hospitalisation and death rates.
“We are hoping to receive this data in a day or two and should be able to analyse it in a more meaningful way,” Singh told this newspaper, adding that it will help understand the driving factor and impact of these breakthrough infections and reinfections.
Breakthrough infection is typically defined as an infection acquired at least 14 days after receiving both shots of a vaccine, which is meant to be administered in two doses. The Covid19 vaccines available so far, while offering good protection against death and hospitalisation, do not have very good efficacy against infection, particularly against delta variant.
In Pathanamthitta, there have been nearly 1.35 lakh confirmed Covid19 cases so far but despite a large number of reinfections and infections in those vaccinated, the death rate has remained below 0.5 % --which is the overall death rate for Kerala too.
The district had reported only 543 Covid19 deaths till Thursday.
Meanwhile the team, following its visit to the state, in a report to the Centre and Kerala has projected cumulative 4.64 lakh incidences of infection between August 1-20. The state over the last week has reported more than 51 % of the total Covid19 cases registered in India while its overall test positivity rate also stays above 12 %.
It also said that as Kerala did not define containment zones according to the Centre's guidelines and There was no buffer zone between containment zones and areas which were not contained.
While praising the Covid19 behaviour strategy and low seroprevalence in the state, coupled with a good rate of vaccination, Singh pointed out that Kerala needs to cut the rate of transmission in order to keep the situation under control.
He said, based on ICMR’s fourth round of the national survey, 55 % of the total population in Kerala is still susceptible to Covid infection while delta variant--found in 88 to 90 % samples- has been fuelling the infection surge in the state.