The number of Covid-19 cases in Kerala is expected to more than double in the coming days, according to the state’s health minister, Veena George, who stated in the Assembly on Friday that the R-value in several regions is above 1.
Veena George, speaking about Kerala’s present Covid crisis, said that genome sequencing revealed that nearly 90% of the state’s patients were infected with the Delta variety, which has the ability to spread swiftly.
The health minister also argued in favour of keeping the Covid-19 limitations in place. “With the third wave approaching and the state still recovering from the second wave, the limits cannot be relaxed completely,” she said.
“We can’t be in lockdown indefinitely. People’s lives and livelihoods must be safeguarded. Kerala has been putting in place steps to prepare for such events, according to Veena George.
Kerala’s government lifted Covid restrictions on Wednesday, stating that the weekend curfew would only be enforced on Sundays. Except on Sundays, shops would be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.
However, Health Minister Veena George said that in locations where 10 people out of 1,000 are positive, there might be triple lockdowns. “We need to categorise locations depending on the number of instances per 1000 people,” she said.
On Friday, Kerala reported 19,948 new Covid-19 cases and 187 deaths, bringing the overall number of active cases in the state to 1,78,204 and the total number of deaths to 17,515.
However, before Thursday, Kerala had had more than 20,000 cases every day for the previous eight days, with the exception of Monday, when the state saw 13,984 cases.
