Despite High Inoculation Rate, Kerala Sees Re-infection, Centre Points at Speeding up 2nd Dose

Due to large number of re-infections in Kerala, particularly among those who have received one dose of covid-19 vaccine, the Centre has asked the state to study whether the gap between the two doses needs to be reduced.

According to a report by Times of India, the central team that visited the state recently has made the observation. While Kerala has been reporting a large number of cases, the government is also studying the cases through genome sequencing.

The state has a higher rate of vaccination coverage with around 54 per cent people having received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines whereas more than 23 per cent are fully immunised. However, cases of re-infection are high in the state inspite of two doses of vaccines.

Kerala has 11 districts showing an increasing trend in daily average cases, said the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday in a briefing on the coronavirus situation in the country. With Kerala registering 51.51 percent of the total Covid cases reported last week, the state has been contributing the highest share of daily caseload.

A six-member team, headed by National Centre for Disease Control’s director Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh, sent to monitor and help the state authorities deal with coronavirus spread found that containment zones are not made according to union health ministry’s guidelines, in which concentration of diseased determines the anatomy of the zones.

The TPR has been over 10 per cent in the past few weeks. On Monday, the rate was 13.87 percent. This measure shows the ratio of cases confirmed to tests performed. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a high TPR indicates poor testing and it should remain below 5 per cent.

CFR, the proportion of people who die after testing positive for Covid, was reported be at a relatively low 0.5 percent.

About 44 percent of the population in Kerala were found to have been exposed to Covid-19, according to the sero-survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research in June and July. Sero-prevalence means the presence of antibodies against Covid-19 in the population.

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