Kerala reports over 50% of India’s daily COVID19 cases; state announces complete weekend lockdown
The COVID cases in India are rising again. Active cases are over 400,000 now. Lauded for its COVID19 management practices earlier, Kerala is accounting for nearly 37 per cent of the country’s active caseload and a weekend lockdown has been announced from July 31. More details here.
The COVID19 cases in India are rising again. Pic: Twitter/@ABVPVoice
Yesterday, on July 28, India reported 43,509 fresh coronavirus infections and out of those Kerala reported 22,056. This means that 50.69 per cent of the total new cases in the country are from Kerala, a state that was earlier lauded for its COVID19 management.
With 3,831 fresh infections, Malappuram district reported the highest daily new cases. Other worst affected districts in the state are Thrissur (3,005), Kozhikode (2,400), Ernakulam (2,397), Palakkad (1,649), Kollam (1,462), Alappuzha (1,461), Kannur (1,179), Thiruvananthapuram (1,101) and Kottayam (1,067).
After Maharashtra (286), Kerala has reported the second-highest deaths —131 — due to the SARS-Cov-2 virus in India. This is 20 per cent of the total 640 deaths reported in the country yesterday.
The COVID19 cases in India are rising again. Last week on July 22, 34,863 new cases were reported in the country. Yesterday, on July 28, 43,509 cases were reported. Just three days back 30,820 cases were reported in the country on July 26.
Active cases in the country are over 400,000 now and Kerala is accounting for nearly 37 per cent of active caseload. At present, Kerala has 149,534 active COVID19 cases.
Weekend lockdown in Kerala
In the wake of the rising COVID19 cases in the southern state, the state government has announced the ‘complete’ weekend lockdown from this week on July 31 and August 1.
Also, the central government is sending a six-member team from the National Centre for Disease Control to the state.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, in a tweet, said that the team will aid the state’s ongoing efforts in COVID19 management as a large number of Covid cases are still being reported in Kerala.
The team headed by National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Director S K Singh will reportedly reach Kerala tomorrow on July 30 and visit some districts reporting a high case positivity rate, the Health Ministry said in a statement.
Over a week back on July 20, Supreme Court of India thrashed the Kerala government for announcing a three-day relaxation of COVID curbs for Bakrid (Eid-ul-Azha). The apex court called Kerala’s decision to ‘give in to pressure groups’ for Bakrid ‘wholly uncalled for’. However, it did not cancel the government notification that eased the lockdown in the state.
The apex court states that the pressure groups in the market can’t be allowed to affect the right to health. “Can’t quash the Kerala government notification. The horse has already bolted,” it said.
“Alarming state of affairs to give in to pressure tactics. Pressure hood of any manner cannot infringe upon the most precious right of right to life. If any untoward incident takes place due to this relaxation, public can bring to our notice and action will be taken accordingly,” said a two-judge bench of Justices RF Nariman and BR Gavai.
In response to its decision to ease the lockdown to celebrate Bakrid, Kerala said the relaxation had been on since June 15 and was ‘nothing new’.
On July 17, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had announced the concessions stating that in view of Bakrid (Eid-ul-Azha) on July 21, textiles, footwear shops, jewellery, fancy stores, shops selling home appliances and electronic items, all types of repairing shops and shops selling essential items shall be allowed to open on July 18-20 from 7 am to 8 pm.
Over 19 million vaccine doses have been administered in Kerala so far. Amid rising COVID19 cases in the state, vaccination pace has also slowed down. The data available on the health ministry’s web portal Co-WIN shows a decreasing vaccination trend. On July 24, the highest — 491,831 — total doses were administered. Yesterday on July 28, this dropped to 66,298 total doses. A drop of 86 per cent in just four days.