Kerala orders lockdown as COVID-19 infections rise
The federal government said it was sending half a dozen experts to monitor Kerala’s worst-hit areas and work with state authorities on strategies to contain the outbreak
India’s southern state of Kerala on Thursday announced a two-day lockdown as federal authorities planned to send experts to fight the spread of infections in the country’s leading COVID-19 hotspot.
India’s daily cases have fallen after a devastating second wave that overwhelmed the healthcare system, and vaccination efforts are gaining steam. But experts have warned the authorities against swiftly reopening cities.
Kerala, with an active case load of around 154,000, accounts for 37.1% of India’s total active cases. Its case positivity rate indicating the pace of spread in infections is now the country’s highest.
“Special intensified stringent restrictions are being implemented in the areas where the test positivity rate is high,” the state’s department of disaster management said in a statement announcing a “complete lockdown” from Sunday.
During the last four weeks, seven of Kerala’s 14 districts reported an increasing trend in daily new infections, government data released earlier this week showed.
On Thursday, the federal government said it was sending half a dozen experts to monitor Kerala’s worst-hit areas and work with state authorities on strategies to contain the outbreak.
Kerala now accounts for more than half of India’s daily cases being reported and it has been reporting more than 20,000 new infections for the last three days in a row.
In a tweet on Thursday, federal health minister Mansukh Mandavya said the team would “aid the state’s ongoing efforts” in managing the pandemic.
The National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC) director Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh is heading the high-level multi-disciplinary team.
This is the second federal team arriving in the state this month amid complaints of unscientific lockdown restrictions and non-compliance of COVID appropriate behaviour.
A health ministry statement said they will “collaborate with the state health authorities in instituting effective public health measures for COVID-19 management.”
It said “significantly enhanced number of daily cases” are being reported by Kerala,” which also accounts for close to 40 per cent of India’s active caseload currently.
The team will reach here on Friday and visit a few districts where the test-positivity rate (TPR) remains alarmingly high and “take a stock of on ground situation.”
They will recommend necessary public health interventions to contain the rising cases despite a lockdown restricting people’s mobility and economic activities for quite long.
The growth rate of the active cases in the state was 1.41 per cent in the last seven days and the TPR touched a recent high on Thursday 13.53.
The federal authorities have also sent a fresh stock of 973,000 doses of vaccine as a seroprevalence study found only 44 per cent of its population had acquired antibodies.
People get immunised against the virus either through infection or by vaccination and at least 37 per cent of its population has now got inoculated.
On Thursday, Kerala logged 22,064 more cases and 128 deaths, the highest number of fatalities after Maharashtra (286), which has a population size of around three times.
Malappuram district reported the highest number of new cases (3,679) followed by Thrissur (2,752), Kozhikode (2,619), Ernakulam (2,359) and Palakkad (2,034).
Kollam added 1,517 new cases, Kannur 1,275, Trivandrum 1,222, Kottayam 1,000, Alappuzha 991, Kasaragod 929, Wayanad 693, Pathanamthitta 568 and Idukki 426.
The federal health secretary Rajesh Bhushan also wrote to the state’s health ministry on “super spreader events” observed here recently.
He also underlined that COVID guidelines need to be enforced strictly, in an apparent reference to the recent relaxations for religious festivals and funerals.
“Compliance with mass/social gatherings guidelines need to be enforced strictly and correctly,” he wrote.
He expressed concern about non-adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour among migrant workers.
Some patients refuse to get themselves admitted to isolation centres, he said, and they need counselling.