The Wayanad district administration is gearing up to adopt stringent steps to contain the second wave of COVID-19.
“The next two weeks are going to be very critical as the test positivity rate in the district is increasing,” District Collector Adeela Abdulla said. The current test positivity rate is 5.6 % in the district as against 3% a few weeks ago, Ms. Abdulla said.
The major outbreak of the pandemic has been reported in Sulthan Bathery and Kalpetta Municipality as well as in Panamaram grama panchayat of the 25 civic bodies in the district, she said.
As many as 50 to 72 positive cases are reporting every day in those civic bodies whereas the number of positive cases in Mananthavady Municipality and Kaniyampetta, Vythiri, Meppadi and Nenmeni grama panchayats is 38 to 50 cases a day.
The lowest number of cases are being reported in Thondarnadu, Thirunelly, Muppainad, and Noolpuzha grama panchayats. Seven to 13 positive cases are reporting in those panchayats a day, she said.
As the recent spike in coronavirus cases is spreading faster in the country compared with last year, the public in the district should be vigilant and make efforts to fight the pandemic, she said.
The sero-surveillance study to monitor the trend of SARS-CoV-2 infection transmission in the district revealed that only below 10% of the people could achieve immunity against the pandemic.
However, the pandemic has affected below one per cent of tribal population in the district so far. Hence, it was feared that the positivity rate might increase in the coming days, Ms. Abdulla said.
Sample collection and tests would be intensified in the coming days. Stringent steps would be adopted to contain the pandemic in coming days, she said. The deployment of sectoral officers would be strengthened to ensure adherence to the COVID-19 protocol as a part of it, she said .
As many as 117 camps have been set up in the district to administer the vaccine to people above 45 years.
