COVID-19 severity decreasing in Kerala says Health Minister

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 4 (PTI) Despite a high number of
daily positive cases, Kerala Health Minister Veena George on
Wednesday said the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic was
decreasing in the state.
The number of patients seeking treatment at hospitals and
those needing ICU support has dwindled, she said during the
Question Hour session in the Assembly.
"The hospital occupancy and ICU occupancy have decreased
in the state now-a--days. That means, the severity of the
disease is decreasing," George pointed out.
The Health Minister also said the department is now
assessing the impact of 'break-through infection' and
'reinfection' among people.
"We are examining whether people are experiencing vaccine
breakthrough infection ( a COVID case that occurs in someone
who is fully vaccinated) and reinfection ( a person, who was
infected and recovered, is infected again)," she said.
As per a recent survey conducted by the Health
Department, the reinfection rate has decreased remarkably.
However, vaccine breakthrough infection is happening in
the state, she said, quoting the survey.
Rejecting opposition criticism, George told the House
that if a person died of COVID-19, it would be recorded as
such.
The instances of people, who died of the virus infection
but excluded from the list of COVID deaths somehow, would be
examined, she said, adding that no comparison had been made so
far between the pandemic death figures of the Health and Local
Self Government Departments.
The southern state, on Tuesday, reported 23,676 fresh
COVID cases pushing the total infection caseload to 34,49,149,
with the number of people succumbing to the virus rising to
17,103 after 148 more deaths. PTI LGK
ROH ROH

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)