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With over 32,000 fresh Covid infections, Kerala sees another surge; brings back Sunday lockdown
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan dismissed allegations of failure and said those who are blaming the government are not aware that the second wave of the pandemic set in late in Kerala.
Kerala on Friday reported another massive surge of Covid-19 infections as the state recorded 32,801 new cases taking the test positivity rate to 19.22 per cent. This is the second time since May 20, the peak of the second wave, that the state recorded over 30,000 fresh cases in 24 hours. Given the surge in the cases, the state government decided to bring back Sunday lockdown, which was done away with in the last two weeks because of the Independence Day and Onam celebrations.
Kerala's Covid situation has deteriorated with the state seeing an Onam spike. State health minister Veena George put the blame on home isolation and recently said that a majority of the people are getting infected from their family members as infected people are not following containment rules properly in home isolation.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan too dismissed the constant attack on Kerala's Covid management as 'unwanted' and said that these are deliberate attempts to undermine people's fight against the pandemic. "These moves were to trigger public sentiments against the government and thus create a situation in which the fight against the virus infection was viewed lightly by the people," the chief minister wrote in the latest edition of the party's mouthpiece.
"In Kerala, not a single person had died due to the dearth of oxygen. No one has been denied access to health services or anyone faced a situation of not getting a hospital bed during emergencies," the CM wrote adding that those who are criticising Kerala's model are not aware that the second wave started a bit late in the state.
The Union home secretary chaired a meeting on Thursday with the state government officials of Kerala and Maharashtra as these are the two states with an unusual graph of Covid at present. The Centre also suggested placing a night curfew in areas of high positivity.
Cases of reinfections have been found to be higher in Kerala than in other states, which contributed to the ongoing surge that started in the last week of July. Another peak just after Onam was predicted and the state government was alerted accordingly.
