E-Paper
Kerala on alert amid slight rise in Covid-19 cases
Kerala health minister Veena George on Monday said that the state high-level Covid committee is carefully monitoring the occupancy rate of ICU beds, oxygen beds, and ventilators across government and private hospitals in the wake of a slight rise in Covid-19 infections in the state
Kerala health minister Veena George on Monday said that the state high-level Covid committee is carefully monitoring the occupancy rate of ICU beds, oxygen beds, and ventilators across government and private hospitals in the wake of a slight rise in Covid-19 infections in the state.
“We are carefully checking if there is a rise in the occupancy of ICU beds, oxygen beds and ventilators. Between Dec 13 and 16, we conducted an online mock drill to ensure the availability of such beds by involving 1,192 government and private hospitals. A total of 1,957 oxygen beds, 2,454 ICU beds and 937 ICU beds with ventilator support have been prepared,” the minister said.
George said that those who died in recent days after contracting Covid-19 in the state were people who were already suffering from severe comorbidities. “They did not die as a result of Covid-19. They were admitted to hospitals due to other illnesses. Elderly people and those with severe illnesses must take precautions to avoid contracting Covid,” she said.
At the same time, the health minister asked the public not to panic or spread fear in the wake of the rise in infections.
“From November onwards, we had been seeing a slight rise in Covid cases. As a result, at a ministerial meeting then, we decided to test samples for whole genome sequencing to find out the reason for the spurt. It was from those tests that one sample of a 79-year-old patient from Karakulam in Thiruvananthapuram district has been identified as JN.1 subvariant of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 virus. It is a highly transmissible variant but it is not severe. So there is no need to panic but we must continue to be vigilant,” the minister said.
The minister pointed out that 15 travellers from India had tested positive for the JN.1 subvariant of the Covid-19 virus during routine surveillance at the Singapore airport. “That means, this subvariant is also present in other Indian states. It’s just that through testing, this variant has been confirmed in a patient in Kerala. It’s because of the alertness of the health officials here and the strength of the machinery that the case has been detected,” she said.
The Centre issued an advisory to all states including Kerala on Monday urging them to maintain continuous vigilance in the wake of the identification of the JN.1 subvariant of the virus.
