Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya’s visit to Kerala comes nearly two weeks after he spoke to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan over rising cases of the coronavirus disease in the state.
Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya will be visiting Kerala on Monday to review the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) situation in the state, which has been reporting a surge in infections. Mandaviya’s visit to Kerala comes nearly two weeks after he spoke to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan over rising cases of the coronavirus disease in the state. Seeking the state government’s cooperation in managing the pandemic, the Union health minister also wrote to Vijayan, urging him to take more proactive measures to control the spread of the virus.
Kerala has so far recorded nearly 3.67 million cases and 18,601 deaths due to Covid-19. On Sunday, the state saw another high of 18,582 new cases, while 102 patients succumbed to Covid-19. Nearly 21,000 patients were discharged on Sunday, which took the cumulative count of recoveries to 3,492,367 while the active cases stood at 178,630, according to the health department’s bulletin. As many as 122,970 samples were tested for Covid-19 on Sunday and the test positivity rate (TPR) stood at 15.11 per cent.
As of Sunday’s infection count, four districts – Malappuram, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Ernakulam – recorded more than 2,000 cases. Over 499,000 patients are under surveillance across several districts of Kerala and of which 27,636 are in hospitals and the remaining 471,395 patients are either in home or institutional quarantine, the bulletin showed.
Even though Kerala accounts for over 50 per cent of the fresh cases in India, state health minister Veena George said on Saturday that the pandemic situation is not in panic mode and the government is taking all possible measures to control the spread of Covid-19. “We have requested more vaccines. Even though cases are higher than last week, hospitals and ICU occupancy are comparatively less in the count,” Veena was quoted as saying by ANI.
According to the visit plan shared by the Union health ministry, Mansukh Mandaviya will meet Vijayan and George. He will also be accompanied by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and other officials of the health ministry, people familiar with the matter told news agency ANI on Saturday.
Union health minister Mandaviya is also likely to visit Assam on Tuesday to review the pandemic situation and will hold a review meeting in Guwahati.
(With agency inputs)
