Second wave of cases likely, says Kerala CM

Failure to adhere to safety norms taking a toll; Kerala adds 4,644 cases, A.P. 8,218, Karnataka 8,363 and Telangana 2,123

The COVID-19 tally continued its steady rise in the southern States with Karnataka reporting 8,364 new cases on Saturday. With 114 more people dying, the toll rose to 7,922.

After remaining at over one lakh for three days, active cases dropped to 98,564. Of these, 822 patients were in hospital ICUs.

Bengaluru Urban reported 3,733 cases. With 33 of 114 deaths from Bengaluru, the city toll rose to 2,625.

The daily testing rate stood at 63,784 including 28,822 rapid antigen tests.

Kerala’s rising trend continued with 4,644 new cases on Saturday; 47,452 samples were tested in one day.

The number of patients being treated in hospitals was 37,488, of which 319 were critically ill and in ICUs, 88 requiring ventilator support.

The State’s official death toll surged to 519, as 18 deaths, which occurred between August 29 and September 17 were added to the provisional list.

Five deaths were reported from Thiruvananthapuram, four from Thrissur, three from Kollam, two each from Ernakulam and Palakkad and one from Kasaragod.

Among new cases, almost 84 % were locally acquired infections.

New cases in Thiruvananthapuram surged to 824 on Saturday. The capital district had the highest number of active cases at 6,721.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the media that lack of vigil and protocol violations were exacting a heavy price.

An institutional cluster around a private hospital in Pathanamthitta had resulted in 55 cases. People getting together for social events like weddings and not following COVID-19 precautions were producing disease transmission.

Alapuzha had 11 large clusters. In Idukki, Nedumkandam town was entirely closed, after one of the biggest clusters formed through contact resulted in 48 cases, including a fish wholesale dealer, grama panchayat, bank and Excise officials. The contacts for the fish wholesale dealer were 3,000 or more people .

Malappuram had 534 cases, Kollam 436, Kozhikode 412, Thrissur and Ernakulam 351, Palakkad 349, Alapuzha 348, Kottayam 263, Kannur 222, Pathanamthitta 221, Kasaragod 191, Wayanad 95 and Idukki 47.

COVID-19’s second wave was imminent in the country, when the situation could become worse, Mr. Vijayan said quoting experts.

In Kerala, the SARS-CoV-2 viruses belonging to the A2a clade, marked by the D614G mutation linked to higher infectivity were in circulation, as per the genomic surveillance study conducted in Kozhikode Medical College, he said. However, the increase in infectivity was a phenomenon noticed only in cell culture studies in laboratories and cannot be extrapolated to the population, scientists have noted..

Mr. Vijayan said that even the smallest of transgressions could have serious consequences for the State and that everyone needed to behave more responsibly in public places for the sake of every one.

Telangana recorded 2,123 cases on Friday. While 54,459 people were tested on September 18, results of 1,025 were awaited. There were nine more deaths.There were 305 cases from Greater Hyderabad, 185 from Rangareddy, 149 from Medchal Malkajgiri, 135 from Nalgonda, 112 from Karimnagar, 93 from Khammam. From Monday, around 55,000 samples were tested in a day.

Of the total 1,69,169 cases, 30,636 were active cases , 1,37,508 have recovered, and 1,025 have died. The recovery rate in the State is 81.28%. According to the media bulletin issued by the State Health department, around 24,070 were in home or institutional isolation. In the 41 State government hospitals, 3926 oxygen beds and 432 ICU beds were available on Friday. And in the 219 private hospitals, 2891 oxygen beds and 1382 ICU beds were vacant.

For the sixth day, A.P. reported over 8,000 infections – 8,218 on Saturday. During the period, 58 deaths were reported.

The number of active cases further came down to 81,763. With 74,595 samples tested the test positivity rate was 12.27%.

Andhra Pradesh is one of the few States to test over 50 lakh samples since the outbreak of the pandemic.

In the last two weeks, an average of 71,311 samples were tested per day and 9,317 of them returned positive.

East and West Godavari districts again reported over 1,000 new cases with the former clocking the highest among the districts. Chittoor reported the highest number of new deaths and continued to top the districts with a toll of 580.

The new cases and deaths in the districts are as follows: East Godavari (1,395 & 3), West Godavari (1,071 & 5), Chittoor (736 & 9), Nellore (693 & 4), Prakasam (670 & 4), Kadapa (520 & 5), Srikakulam (485 & 3), Anantapur (477 & 5), Guntur (471 & 5), Krishna (468 & 7), Vizianagaram (462 & 1), Visakhpatnam (451 & 4) and Kurnool (319 & 3).

The district-wise infection tallies are as follows: East Godavari (85,247), West Godavari (56,741), Chittoor (54,059), Kurnool (53,754), Anantapur (52,298), Guntur (48,864), Nellore (47,283), Visakhapatnam (46,508), Prakasam (40,826), Kadapa (39,264), Srikakulam (35,468), Vizianagaram (30,978) and Krishna (23,591).

Tamil Nadu reported 5,569 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, taking the total tally of cases reported till date to 5,36,477. The number of COVID-19 patients reported as recovered was 5,556. With the total number of recoveries being 4,81,273, the State’s recovery rate was at 89.7 %. The State had 46,453 active cases as of Saturday.

A total of 66 persons lost their lives due to COVID-19, according to the media bulletin, taking the total death toll to 8,751. Thirty six of these deaths happened in government hospitals and the remaining 30 in private facilities.

Chennai (987) reported the highest number of new cases, followed by Coimbatore (565). Chengalpattu (293), Cuddalore (289), Salem (286), and Thiruvallur (282) had more than 200 cases. Another 12 districts reported more than 100 cases.

According to the bulletin released by the Health and Family Welfare department, 56 of the deceased persons had comorbidities. Fifty of the deceased were male. Of the total number of deaths reported on Saturday, 30 were below 60 years of age.

Chennai reported eight deaths, followed by Salem (6) and Chengalpattu (5).

The youngest among those reported dead was a 25-year-old male from Coimbatore, who had a comorbidity of Type 1 diabetes mellitus. He was tested positive on Sep 15, 2020 and died two days later at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.

Among the deceased was another 38-year-old male who had no comorbidities. The bulletin said that the person had a cough and fever for seven days. He was admitted to a private hospital on Sep 17, 2020 and died within a day.

The eldest among the deceased was an 83-year-old male at a private hospital in Chennai. He had Type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension, the bulletin said.

A total of 83,265 persons were tested in the past one day, the bulletin said. The State has so far tested 61.9 lakh people.

(With inputs from Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad and Vijayawada bureaus)

Source: Read Full Article