Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Thursday said 94 per cent of the Covid cases in the state are now the Omicron variant, with Delta variant accounting for 6 per cent.
The 14 districts in the state have been classified into three categories which includes Category C as worst-affected and on Thursday, Kottayam, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, and Idukki districts were added to the list which earlier had only Thiruvananthapuram.
In these districts, no public functions are allowed and gyms, theatres, and swimming pools should not open.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, 51,739 people turned Covid positive and the test positivity rate stood at 44.60 per cent.
At present there are 3,09,489 active patients, of which 3.6 per cent are admitted at hospitals.
George told the media that cases in the coming weeks can go up and for about three weeks, things will remain high, after which it is expected to taper off.
“The utilisation of ICU beds at the state-run colleges on Thursday was less by 2 per cent and stood at 40.2 per cent of all beds for both Covid and non-Covid cases, likewise ICU ventilator use was just 13.5 per cent. At the private hospitals, ICU beds occupancy was just 8.22 per cent while the ventilator usage was 8.96 per cent,” said George.
State Education Minister V. Sivankutty told the media that offline classes will be there only for Class 10 to 12, while all the other classes will be held in the online mode.
He also said teachers and non-teaching staff should come to the school everyday.
State Local Self Government Minister M.V. Govindan asked the local body officials to ensure that all measures should be taken to see that all the help should be provided to Covid-affected.
In a related incident, a major goof up occurred at Thrissur when the dead bodies of two Covid patients were wrongly handed over by the wardens in charge of the mortuary and when it became an issue, two wardens were suspended.
(IANS)
