THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With many countries starting to deal with a second or third wave of Covid-19, health officials in the state are a worried lot.The projections that an exponential rise in cases might happen post local body polls and the fresh wave that might hit the state will be deadlier than the first one has triggered alarm bells among them.
The uncertainty involved with vaccination is another problem that the state is concerned about. At the same time, public health experts said that human behaviour will be the major factor that determines how the case trajectory will progress.“The active caseload might have come down. Also in some days, recoveries exceed new cases. But that doesn’t mean that these are signs of flattening the pandemic curve. New challenges are emerging. If a surge in cases happens, it might put the health staff and hospitals under stress. Thus a robust plan must be there to deal with worst-case scenarios,” said an official of the health department. At the national level, in the daily Covid-19 tally, the state tops the list of 10 states and Union territories which contributes most cases.
Earlier, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in his daily briefings had stated that the resurgence of the virus is a reality and the state should be cautious on preventing the same.“European countries are now dealing with a second/third wave of Covid. So are Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states of the US, Japan, South Korea and others. In India, states like Karnataka have already stated that a second wave of the Novel Coronavirus will come very soon. To lessen the impact some strategic decisions need to be taken,” said a member of the state Covid-19 expert committee.
According to the member, the way forward will be to disallow outdoor settings that draw crowds.
This includes high-risk scenarios for spreading infection like restaurant dining. Restricting social gatherings also holds the key to control the pandemic.
New high in Covid deaths
T’Puram: With 32 deaths, the daily Covid-19 death toll registered a new high on Saturday. A total of 2,390 people died of Covid so far. On the day, Thrissur recorded the most number of deaths - 10. The daily test positivity rate stood at 9.67%. The state registered 5,848 fresh cases and 5,820 recoveries on the day. Of the new cases, 5,137 were contact cases, 613 were cases with unknown source of infection, 53 were returnees and 45 were health workers. The state now has 61,393 active cases and 5,67,694 recovered cases.