Kerala reported 6,036 cases and 5,173 recoveries on Sunday (File)
Kerala has been reporting highest daily COVID-19 cases in the country for days. The positivity rate or the percentage of how fast an infection spreads is 12.48 per cent in Kerala, while the national average is 1.9 per cent, according to government data.
The state government says COVID-19 cases in Kerala are at a plateau and the current numbers are not unexpected.
"The testing in Kerala is a concern and the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had earlier recommended that daily testing needs to be increased to around 1 lakh. But the per day testing still continues to be between 40,000 to 60,000," Dr Sulphi Noohu, member of IMA's central committee, said.
The state government admits that positivity rate is high but critical care services in the hospitals are not under any pressure as only 15 per cent ventilators and 49 per cent intensive care units are occupied, according to state government statistics.
"We don't look at only the test positivity rate. We look at the hospital admission rate, ICU admission and ventilator occupancy. If all this seems to increase, then it is a cause of great concern. But that's not the case," Dr Mohammed Asheel, core committee member on Covid, told NDTV.
"If cases were not increasing, it would have shown that our 'break the chain' campaign had failed. Our success is that our case fatality rate is still among the lowest in india at 0.4%", he added.
The measure of success in fighting the pandemic is to be seen in the health system not choking with a high load of cases and in the fatality rate being among the lowest, says the state government.
Across the country, over 16 lakh healthcare workers have been vaccinated against the coronavirus till now, the centre said on Sunday. Over 31,000 people were vaccinated in five states on Sunday, it said.
Karnataka has the highest number of vaccinations in the country so far with 1,91,443 beneficiaries followed by Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Kerala has vaccinated 53,529 till Sunday, according to government data.
Kerala reported 6,036 cases and 5,173 recoveries on Sunday. While the total caseload soared to 8,89,576, the recoveries have touched 8,13,550, state Health Minister KK Shailaja said in a statement, news agency PTI reported.