KOCHI: With the growth rate of new Covid cases increasing by 133% on Thursday, compared to the previous week, and amid formation of clusters in several institutions across the state, the state government has warned that strict action will be taken against any institution that fails to inform the health department regarding the formation of Covid clusters in the premise.
Health minister Veena George on Thursday said that the private nursing college in Pathanamthitta where an Omicron cluster was found had tried to keep the news under wraps. She has directed the district medical officer to initiate action against the institution.
Meanwhile, 59 new cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus were confirmed Thursday, taking the total persons infected with the new variant in the state to 480. Of these, 332 persons had arrived from low-risk countries, 90 from nations marked as high-risk and 52 contracted the virus from contacts. Six Omicron cases were detected in interstate travellers.
With this, the total confirmed Covid cases in the state was 13,468 on Thursday, with 2% needing hospitalization. Thiruvananthapuram reported maximum cases - 3,404, followed by Ernakulam (2,394), Kozhikode (1,274), Thrissur (1,067), Kottayam (913), Kannur (683), Kollam (678), Malappuram (589), Alappuzha (586), Pathanamthitta (581), Palakkad (553), Idukki (316), Wayanad (244) and Kasaragod (186). In the last 24 hours, 66,796 samples were tested.
There are currently 1,57,292 people under surveillance in various districts of the state. Of these, 1,53,994 are under home or institutional quarantine and 3,298 are in hospitals. A total of 461 people were newly admitted to the hospital.
The total Covid death toll in the state is now 50,369, with 21 new Covid deaths on Thursday and another 96 backlog deaths, which were added as per Supreme Court guidelines.
Despite best efforts, the state is yet to achieve 100% vaccination for the eligible population (above 18 years). In the state, 99.33 % of the eligible population has received one vaccine dose and 82 % received two doses. Of the 13,468 new Covid patients, 12,030 were eligible for vaccination. Of these, 3,853 had taken a single dose and 8,177 took two doses. However, 1,438 people were not reported to have received the vaccine.
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