THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A manageable position with regard to active patients has avoided yet another stringent lockdown this week, even when the numbers are expected to see a huge increase in the coming days.
The Covid review meeting on Tuesday decided to continue with the existing lockdown plans without change.
Health experts attribute the decision for maintaining status quo to the low proportion of severely ill among the new positives detected recently.
They vouch for the increase in immunity (as a result of vaccination or recovery from infection) for the change when compared to the situation in May.
The state reported 1,59,335 active patients with the addition of 24,296 cases on Tuesday. It also reported the highest test positivity rate of 18.04 per cent after a gap of almost three months.
The government usually considers stringent lockdown measures when the number of patients is expected to overwhelm the system.
However, experts said vaccine coverage played a key role in keeping the severely ill patients below the capacity of the health system.
“The percentage of active cases requiring ICU and ventilator has halved over last two months when the percentage of fully vaccinated adult population has increased from 6 to 24 per cent. This is similar to the trend what we see in the United Kingdom,” said Dr Padmanabha Shenoy, an immunologist and public health expert.
The state has topped the national average in terms of vaccine doses given to the population. According to health department, the state has given over 2.65 crore doses in first and second doses.
So far 55.19% of the population received the first dose and 19.9% received the second dose.
Among the eligible population (18 years and above) it is 68.07 and 24.55% respectively.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Health Minister Veena George have stressed on improving the vaccination coverage as part of the strategy to deal with post-Onam surge.
Apart from vaccination, the state has seen over 36.7 lakh recoveries from infection so far. At present the state is in a comfortable position in terms of ICU and ventilator occupancy. According to the Covid Jagratha portal, it is at 38% and 32%, respectively.
It usually takes 10 days to reflect the surge of patients on the ICU occupancy and almost a month for ventilator usage.
Health experts have also cautioned that the strain on facilities will start to appear if the number of patients crosses the three lakh mark.
Internal medicine specialist and public health activist Dr N M Arun said government hospitals in Kollam, Malappuram, Kottayam, Thrissur, Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam have already shown fewer or no vacancies.