Veteran doctors in Kerala warn that the State is in for another crisis induced by Covid-19 as the number of persons diagnosed with the pandemic shot up to 5,296 in the last 24 hours that ended on Friday evening. Though the State administration is leaving no stones unturned to portray an all is well sign in Kerala, doctors in Government and private sectors are forecasting another spell of death.
Meanwhile, it was announced officially that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who is ailing for some time is leaving for United States for treatment. He will be away for a week for medical tests and this is being seen as a follow up of the three-weeks long treatment he underwent in that country in 2018 September.
The State administration, according to health minister Veena George tested 64,577 samples on Friday, out of which 5,296 new cases were diagnosed with Covid-19.
“Hospital across the State are getting filled up again and ambulances blaring their sirens are speeding all over. What does this indicate?” asked a senior functionary of the Kerala Government Medical Officers Association who did not want his name to be quoted.
Minister Veena George in her daily media release said that till Friday evening, 49,305 persons have succumbed to the pandemic across the State. Even as the State is reeling under the onslaught of the pandemic, there has been no let up in the month long agitation launched by the Kerala Government Medical Officers Association.
A statement by Dr G S Vijayaprishnan (president) and Dr T N Suresh (general secretary) on Friday said that all government doctors would avail a day’s casual leave on January 18 to make the State administration understand the seriousness of the situation. The doctors are agitating demanding the appointment of 1,000 government doctors at least on temporary basis to handle the present crisis.
The decision of the Kerala Government to scrap the special allowances of doctors and refusal to appoint temporary hands to tide over the pandemic has caused wide spread resentment among medical fraternity, said Dr Rajiv Pillai, a doctor with more than two decades experience in treating contagious diseases. “The situation in Kerala is grave as we are experiencing a multi-headed attack in the form of Covid-19 and Omicron,” said Dr Pillai.
Though neighbouring Tamil Nadu has decided to shut down all educational institutions in the face of increasing number of covid-19 cases ( 6,983 cases till Thursday), it has not lowered its guard in the number of samples being tested, On Thursday, the State tested 1.28 lakh persons using RT-PCR method.