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Karnataka assessing red flags in COVID data; doctor says healthcare system in Kerala not overburdened
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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Summary
While Kerala recorded over 30,000 cases in the past 24 hours, Maharashtra is on the second spot with over 5,000 new cases.
Kerala has recorded the highest number of cases followed by Maharashtra. While Kerala recorded over 30,000 cases in the past 24 hours, Maharashtra is on the second spot with over 5,000 new cases. No other state has reported more than 1,600 cases. Kerala’s 7-day average test positivity stands at 17.4 percent whereas Maharashtra is much lower at 2.1 percent.
According to a statement released by the home ministry last night, the home secretary has suggested the two states explore the possibility of imposing night curfews in areas of high positivity.
To understand the trends of virus spread in these states and steps being taken to control transmission, CNBC-TV19’s Shereen Bhan spoke to Dr V Anil Kumar, professor, microbiology at Amrita Hospital in Kochi; Dr Gopikumar P, state secretary, IMA Kerala; Dr Vishal Rao, COVID Task Force of Government Of Karnataka; and Dr Om Srivastav, Dir – Infectious Diseases at Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre.
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On COVID cases in Kerala, Dr V Anil Kumar said, “We have seen 30,000 cases for the past two days, and it is worrying in fact but you should understand that we have been seeing 20,000 cases per day for the last one month. As of now, our ICU beds are 43 percent vacant, 75 percent of the ventilators are vacant, 63 percent of the first line treatment centres are vacant.”
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“So we don’t have moderate or severe cases, which require hospitalisation in spite of having high numbers. So let us hope that this trend continues. But if 30,000 plus cases keep reporting per day then our health infrastructure may get stressed, but as of now, we are in a comfortable position to handle these cases.”
On vaccinations in Kerala, Kumar said, “In the vaccination front also Kerala has good numbers when you compare with the cases also. 70 percent of the population, the target population that is more than 80 years of age have got at least one dose of vaccine, almost 30 to 40 percent of the target population has got at least two days of vaccination.”
“Now, we won’t say all the vaccinated people who are getting infected are breakthrough infection because majority of the population have got a single dose, and they are getting infected so these are not classified as breakthrough infections. The true breakthrough infections are 14 days after the second dose, and that is only 3 percent of the population.”
He added, “The best evidence that the vaccine the single dose as well as the double dose is working is in the hospitalisation rate. We don’t see very high hospitalisation rate that we saw during the second wave. So that is evidence that the vaccines are working.”
On Karnataka COVID cases, Dr Vishal Rao said, “I think the most important thing currently is a race between the vaccination and the emergence of new variants. The genomic surveillance committee is actively working to monitor the new variants that are coming up.”
“We know now that currently it is still the Delta that is prevalent. We are looking at the AY.4 which is specific sub lineage of delta that we are focusing on because Karnataka is seeing some amount of higher numbers of AY.4. But largely, what we are focusing on is that Karnataka, the positivity rate is currently less than 1 percent, which is very much desirable.”
On key focus areas, Rao said, “The R factor seems to be increasing over the last couple of days and this is something that we want to closely keep a watch on. In addition to this, I think the key focus will be on rapidly increasing the vaccination rate for the 18 to 45 days to where we have touched about 44 percent as of now, and I think that would be the key area of focus for us and to keep a watch on the district positivity rate, which is going to be very crucial, especially in the bordering districts of Kerala, for us.”
Talking about Maharashtra, Dr Om Srivastav said, “I think the big worry is if the infection goes back like it was in the second wave which we are all concerned about, what is going to be the burden of the infections on public health systems or private health system and what are we going to do about the vaccination gaps that are there and how are we going to cover them? So I think that in the month of September or October, we are all looking forward to a number of vaccines being made available and that should give people a lot more options to come forward and get vaccinated.”
For full interview, watch accompanying video…
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