Kerala’s COVID-19 case graph is on a surge again, indicating a sudden and significant change in the disease transmission pattern in the State in the week following Christmas and New Year and in line with the Omicron-fuelled surge in cases in rest of the country and the world.
Widespread transmission of COVID-19 in the community, with new cases going up by more than two fold in the past two days alone is in evidence now.
On Wednesday, Kerala logged 12,742 new COVID-19 cases, when 72,808 samples were tested in 24 hours. The tally of new cases has been on a steady increase since January 3
Between January 5 and 11, new cases grew by 116%, compared to the previous week, adding 22,409 new cases. Active cases went up by 63% during this period, the average active cases being 32,015, out of which about 1.4% only required hospitalisation and 1.4% needed ICU care.
Hospitalisations rose by 7%, while the number of people in ICU and ventilators showed a decrease of 2.5% and 5% respectively.
With the increase in new cases, the State’s active case pool rose from 44,441, on Tuesday to 54,430 on Wednesday, an addition of close to 10,000 cases (9,989) in a single day. The active case pool had been on a steady decrease since October and had dwindled to 19,021 on January 2, before it began surging.
Of the total active cases now, 5% are currently admitted to hospitals or field hospitals like COVID-19 first line/second line treatment centres. A total of 2,552 persons were reported to have recovered from the disease on Wednesday.
ICU occupancy of COVID patients in both public and private hospitals in the State did not show much change and remained at 453 cases, while the number of patients requiring ventilator support dropped to 135 on Wednesday.
The number of patients in the State newly admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 showed a definite surge with the number swelling from 257 on Monday to 420 on Wednesday. Hospitalisations are rising slowly, in proportion to the increase in active cases and as on Wednesday, 3,029 persons are being treated for moderate or severe COVID in hospitals across the State.
The official cumulative COVID-19 case fatality in the State now stands at 50,254, with the State adding 199 deaths to the official list of COVID deaths on Wednesday. This includes 23 deaths which occurred in the past few days and 176 deaths which have now been accepted as COVID deaths by the government as per the new guidelines of the Centre and following appeals filed by families.
Till now, a total of 19,521 deaths have been newly added to the State’s official list of COVID deaths. The State’s cumulative COVID-19 burden, ever since the pandemic began, now stands at 53, 13,147 cases.
Among districts, Thiruvananthapuram reported the highest number of new cases with 3,498 cases, Ernakulam 2,214, Kozhikode 1,164, Thrissur 989, Kottayam 941, Pathanamthitta 601, Kollam 559, Palakkad 495, Kannur 540, Alappuzha 463, Malappuram 449, Idukki 367, Kasaragod 262 and Wayanad 200 cases.
