Kerala may witness two-fold increase in Covid-19 cases, says Health Minister

Thiruvananthapuram: In the coming days, Kerala is likely to see more than a two-fold increase in cases of Covid-19, because the R-value in some districts is above 1, said the state’s health minister, Veena George, in the Assembly on Friday.

Talking about Kerala’s current Covid crisis, Veena George told that genome sequencing had found around 90 percent of the patients in the state were affected with the Delta variant, which has the potential to develop quickly. Moreover, the health minister advocated maintaining some of the Covid-19 restrictions. She said, ‘With the third wave around the corner and the state yet to fully recover from the second wave, the restrictions cannot be lifted completely.’

‘We cannot be in an indefinite lockdown. We have to protect the life and livelihood of the people. Kerala has been implementing measures foreseeing these things,’ Veena George added.

Read also: State govt reopens school for classes 9-12 from Aug. 23

In an order issued on Wednesday, the Kerala government relaxed Covid curbs and said the weekend curfew would only apply on Sundays. Shops would stay open every day from 7 am to 9 pm except on Sundays. Health Minister Veena George, however, said that there could be triple lockdowns in areas where positivity is 10 per 1,000 of the population. ‘We need to categorise areas based on cases per 1000 of the population,’ she said.

On Friday, Kerala reported 19,948 new cases of Covid-19 and 187 deaths, bringing the active caseload to 1,78,204 and the death toll to 17,515. Until Thursday, Kerala had recorded more than 20,000 cases on a daily basis for the last eight days, except for Monday when there were 13,984 cases.