THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Union government has asked the state to conduct mock drills of all hospital infrastructure on April 10 and 11 as part of Covid preparedness. Prior to that, the district administrations and health officials have to review the health preparedness on April 8 and 9. Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya conveyed the decisions during a meeting with state health ministers to review the Covid situation in the country.
Kerala continues to be on top of the list of states that report a high number of Covid cases in the country. At least 10 districts in the state reported more than 10% positivity.
The other major states on the list are Maharashtra and Delhi. The daily cases in Kerala have come closer to the 2,000-mark while the number of active cases crossed 7,000. The state also reported one Covid death and seven backlog deaths, as per the latest information available with the Centre.
The prevalence of XBB.1.16 variant increased from 21.6% in February to 35.8% in March 2023. However, no evidence of an increase in hospitalisation or mortality has been reported, according to the union minister.