THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The accelerating spread of Covid-19 set off alarm bells louder in the state on Wednesday with the number of fresh cases crossing the 10,000-mark for the first time.
While 10,606 new cases took the state’s active caseload past the 90,000-mark and the total tally beyond 2.50 lakh, the government indicated it is going ahead with the opening up of various sectors in tune with the Centre’s Unlock 5 guidelines.
Nor have the prohibitory orders announced under section 144, preventing more than five persons from coming together at public spaces, been enforced strictly.
With no let up in the spiralling of cases, 11 districts were found to have a Test Positivity Rate (TPR) above 10. The state’s TPR, which had gone up to 14.65, now stands at 13.85.
The case doubling time in all districts, except Thiruvananthapuram, too has quickened alarmingly.
The health department directed the districts to initiate measures to keep the TPR below 10 even as two more ministers — Power Minister M M Mani and Higher Education Minister K T Jaleel — contracted the virus on the day.
Despite the worrying scenario, plans are afoot to reopen different sectors, like tourism centres.
While the government fixed the number of devotees allowed at places of worship at 20, up to 40 people will be allowed during special poojas at temples, Sunday mass at churches and Friday prayers at mosques.
Though Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stressed Covid control measures will be made more stringent, he indicated the state will not enforce a complete lockdown now.
The state reported its highest daily case count on a day it tested 73,816 samples, the highest ever. The recoveries too touched a new high, at 6,161.
“The caseload is spiralling up at a rapid pace. It is now evident that whenever the testing rate increases, a new record is registered. It shows the state won’t take long to register a case count of 15,000 to 20,000 a day, if testing rates are increased,” said a health department officer.
Dr A S Anoop Kumar, critical care medicine expert with the Baby Memorial Hospital in Kozhikode, said the state is witnessing a serious stage of community spread.
Steady increase in critically-ill patients proving a challenge
Dr A S Anoop Kumar of Baby Memorial Hospital in Kozhikode said the situation is serious.
“The priority should be to ensure quality and timely medical attention to the critically ill. Though people are wearing facemasks, they are yet to understand the importance of social distancing. This will have to be inculcated among the masses,” he said.
The number of critically-ill patients is also increasing steadily. The state now has 610 patients in intensive care, with 179 on ventilators. On Tuesday, the corresponding figures stood at 557 and 171.
Except in Pathanamthitta, Idukki and Wayanad, the state had a TPR above 10. Malappuram (26.3) reported the highest TPR, followed by Kasaragod (23.2) and Ernakulam (19).
A vital sign in assessing spread, TPR refers to the number of positive cases per hundred tests. The WHO wants it to be below five, ideally. As of now, no district in the state has a TPR below five, the lowest being Idukki’s 6.4.
Considering the situation, the health department directed all districts to “focus on identification of all symptomatic individuals and isolating them”.
Covid-19 protocol compliance needs to be ensured at markets, shopping malls and shops, the department said.
Within six days, the state added more than 50,000 cases to its total case tally, taking the total number of cases to 2,53,405. On October 1, the tally hit the two lakh mark.
The Covid death toll crossed the 900-mark and reached 906, as 22 more deaths were confirmed on Wednesday.
Of the new cases, 9,542 resulted from local contact.
While 741 were cases with unknown sources of infection, 219 of the newly-infected were returnees, 98 were healthcare workers and six were staff-members of INHS.
The day also recorded the most number of recoveries, at 6161, taking the total recovered to 1,60,253.