COVID-19 case graph in the State is on a steady climb, with new cases growing by 100% in the past seven days, in comparison to the previous week.
Disease transmission seems to be the highest in the 20-40 years age group, a possible indication of the increased social interactions and gatherings amongst this age group over Christmas and New Year, Health Minister Veena George said here on Tuesday.
Talking to mediapersons here, she said that COVID transmission among health-care workers also seemed to be rising.
Hospital beds
The Health Department has reviewed the COVID situation in districts as well as the preparation, including the availability of hospital beds for both COVID and non Covid care, ICU/ventilator and oxygen beds, and availability of oxygen. Cases were rising in all districts, with most cases being reported now from Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kozhikode, and Thrissur, she said.
Ms. George said that samples from case clusters from all districts were being sent for genomic sequencing and that there was no indication of a wide-spread transmission of Omicron virus variant.
According to experts, Delta and Omicron variants were currently in circulation in the State and as Delta variant was known to cause a more serious illness, the public should be on guard and ensure that all universal precautions against COVID-19 were being followed strictly, she said.
Unnecessary travels and public gathering should be strictly avoided. In view of the new COVID situation, 13 committees had been reconstituted under the Health Department, each of which would be in charge of various aspects of COVID management, including surveillance, infrastructure, and logistics.
The State is now manufacturing 416.63 metric tonnes of oxygen. Testing guidelines have been revised as per the directives of the Centre and the ICMR.
Ms. George said that the elderly and those with co-morbidities should take extreme care to ensure that their risk factors were well within control.
Districts had been directed to ready at least one COVID first-line treatment centre each.
COVID brigade
The State had also sought assistance from the Centre for reconstituting the COVID brigade, as the need for more healthcare workers would arise soon, she said.
The State has now fully vaccinated 81% of those above 18 years while at least one dose has been administered to 99%.
In the 15-18 year age group, 39% (5,93,784) have been delivered the first vaccine dose.
In the past two days, 60,421 persons have received the precaution dose, the priority now being for healthcare workers.
