Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the steps taken by the state government to mitigate the effects of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and sought allocation of more vaccine doses. Vijayan explained the COVID-19 situation in Kerala during a video conference held by the Prime Minister.
During the meeting, Vijayan said the delta variant was found in the state during the second wave which began in April, and during that time, the test positivity rate reached almost 30 percent.
"Currently, the test positivity rate has come down to 10.4 percent. When compared to other states, the second wave started late in Kerala. We tried to delay the peak which helped the health sector," he said.
The Chief Minister said the state effectively followed the testing, quarantine, and treatment protocol resulting in becoming the state with one of the lowest case mortality rates in the country.
"Even though other states have high mortality rates, we managed our case mortality rate at 0.48 percent," he added.
Vijayan also urged the allocation of more vaccine doses for the state.
He sought 60 lakh doses of vaccine for July and August and said that a letter in this regard had already been sent to the Prime Minister on July 11.
"Till now, 1.17 crore people of the state received the first dose of the vaccine while 44.18 lakh people received both doses. The state has also arranged special vaccination drives at mental health centres, old age homes and for Tribal communities, bed-ridden patients, and the transgender community," he said.
