As the number of persons afflicted with Covid-19 pandemic continued unabated in the State, the Kerala Government Medical Officers Association, the apex body of government doctors asked the Administration on Thursday to declare total lockdown without any delay for the next 14 days.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in his 45 minutes long speech to media persons late Thursday evening said that a total of 38,607 persons have been diagnosed with the pandemic during the last 12 hours. Test Positivity Ratio reached 24.5 while the disease claimed 48 lives taking the death toll in the State till date to 5,289.
The KGMOA, in a letter to the Chief Secretary of the Government of Kerala called for immediate total lock-down for a fortnight in view of the macabre hike in the number of patients and the presence of genetically modified virus which they said were more deadly than the earlier variant. Dr G S Vijayakrishnan and Dr T N Suresh, president and secretary respectively of the KGMOA, said in their letter addressed to the Chief Secretary that the unabated hike in the number of covid cases points to a major disaster and called for a series of urgent measures.
“The health care sector in the State is in total disarray. There are not enough number of doctors and other medical professionals to attend to the growing number of Covid-19 cases. The State is short of hospital beds and other infrastructure. The genetically modified variants of the virus are deadly and could infect people much faster than the previous variant,” said the doctors.
They also pointed out that there were no 24X7 call centres in the districts to take care of the emergency situation while there was a dearth of more than 1,000 doctors in the State. But Chief Minister Vijayan scoffed at the letter written by the KGMOA and said that he preferred to have a Self-Lock Down by the people instead of a total lock down. Vijayan also said that there was no need to panic provided the people stick to the regulations announced by the Government. “We have decided to resort to strict measures for four days beginning from Tuesday. The steps would be announced soon,” he said.
Vijayan also ordered the cancellation of all TV serial shootings which are in progress. “The people are advised to postpone social gatherings which are not of any importance. Let them have the crowding after the pandemic subsides,” he said. The hospitalisation of persons would be strictly based on merit of the health condition, said Vijayan. “Those who could be treated at home or through tele-medicine, especially those above the age of 60, are advised to stay put at homes and not to come to the hospitals,” he said.
Vijayan said that his studies on the new variants of the virus proved that they were not lethal. “Though there are opinions that the virus travel through the atmosphere and infect persons, it is not like that. Wearing double masks, frequent washing of hands with sanitizers are the ideal way to keep off any kind of Covid virus, “said the Chief Minister.
