Districts in Kerala to be categorised based on Covid ICU occupancy: Health Minister

Kerala Health Minister Veena George said has evolved a strategy to deal with the medical exigencies by categorising virus hit districts

New Delhi: Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Friday (January 21) said that the state government is constantly monitoring the Covid-19 preparedness and has evolved a strategy to deal with the medical exigencies by categorising virus hit districts.

George said that the various Covid hit districts are categorised in the state based on the ICU occupancy by coronavirus infected patients.

“We have evolved a strategy where districts are categorised according to the occupancy of Covid patients in ICU,” said George.

According to the health minister, Kerala now has 1,99,000 active patients now but only 3% of them are hospitalised, only 0.7% are on oxygen support and 0.6% are in ICU.

Meanwhile, the Kerala government on Thursday imposed fresh restrictions in the state as a preventive measure to contain the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

In a high-level Covid review meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan virtually from the United States, it was decided that only essential services should be allowed on the next two Sundays --January 23 and 30.

Institutions including businesses, malls, beaches, and other tourist places like theme parks, ensure no gatherings take place and operate strictly adhering to Covid-19 protocols.

As far as Omicron cases are concerned, Kerala on Thursday reported 62 more cases of the new variant of coronavirus, and took the total number of people affected by the new strain to 707, said the State Health Department.

Meanwhile, the state in the last 24 hours reported 46,387 fresh Covid-19 cases, the highest ever single-day spike in the infections.