In Kerala, COVID-19 hospitalisations go up in all districts

Kerala’s COVID-19 case graph, which began rising three weeks ago, seems to have hit a new and higher plateau than it did in the post-lockdown phase after the peaking of the second wave.

Testing has been increased substantially now, and while this has stabilised the test positivity rate (TPR), active disease transmission is continuing, with the State now logging between 20,000-22,000 cases a day since the past one week. On Wednesday, 22,414 new cases were registered when the State tested 1,97,092 samples over the past 24 hours. Even with the increase in tests, the TPR has stabilised, at 11.37%.

However, what is worrying is the fact that hospitalisations, which seemed to remain stable a week ago, is now beginning to rise. The State had attributed the stable hospitalisation rates to the vaccine effect, that inoculation was reducing the severity of the disease.

On Wednesday, the number of patients in the State newly admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 leaped from 2,456 (on Tuesday) to 2,836. Total hospitalisations of those with moderate or severe COVID, which had been stable around 25,000 a week ago, now stands at 30,047.

ICU occupancy

ICU occupancy figures have not shown a significant increase till now, but this figure is expected to rise at least two weeks after hospitalisations. ICU occupancy spiked on Tuesday and now stands at 2,022, while those requiring ventilator support is 767.

The State’s active case pool is rising steadily and now has 1,76,048 patients, with 19,478 patients reported to have recovered on Wednesday.

The official cumulative COVID-19 case fatality in the State, which crossed 17,000 on Tuesday, is continuing to rise and presently stands at 17,211, with Kerala adding 108 deaths, most of which occurred in the past few days, to the official list of COVID deaths on Wednesday.

The cumulative case burden of the State ever since the pandemic began, now stands at 34, 71,563 cases. The active case pool is over 20,000 in the three districts of Malappuram, Kozhikode and Ernakulam, while it is over 10,000 in Palakkad, Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram. Hospitalisations are beginning to rise in all the districts.

Among districts, Malappuram reported the highest number of new cases on Wednesday with 3,691 cases, Thrissur 2,912, Ernakulam 2,663, Kozhikode 2,502, Palakkad 1,928, Kollam 1,527, Kannur 1,299, Kottayam 1,208, Thiruvananthapuram 1,155, Kasaragod 934, Alappuzha 875, Wayanad 696, Pathanamthitta 657 and Idukki 367 cases.