Thiruvananthapuram: As Kerala's single day COVID-19 surge crossed over 37,000 on Tuesday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the virus would take some more days to peak in the second wave of the infection and cases could soar further.
The state should expect an increased spread of the disease due to the high Test Positivity Rate (TPR), which was 26.08 per cent today, Vijayan told reporters here.
"The TPR is still high, indicating that it will take some more time for the disease to reach its peak in Kerala.This needs to be reduced significantly," he said.
Kerala logged 37,190 fresh cases today, 118 of them health workers. The tally has mounted to over 17 lakh and the active cases touched 3,56,872.
Kerala has gone for stringent restrictions from today to May 9 in addition to the weekend lockdown, he said.
The extension of the restrictions and imposition of full lockdown will be decided after a review at the end of this week, Vijayan said.
Efficient Covid vaccine wastage
According to Vijayan, the state currently has a stock of 2.4 lakh vaccine doses which will only last a maximum of two days.
"Four lakh doses of Covishield and 75,000 doses of Covaxin are expected to arrive today. As of May 3, we have a stock of 270.2 MT of liquid oxygen and 8.97 MT of medical oxygen cylinders. We currently need 108.35 MT of oxygen per day and steps are being taken to ensure oxygen availability."
"Each Covid vaccine vial contains up to ten doses and one additional dose to factor in wastage. We received 73,38,860 doses from the Central Government and we could use it for 74,26,164 doses," he said.
"We were able to give the extra dose as well. These figures show that we have already provided more than what the central government had given. We were able to deliver the vaccine with such care, thanks to the ingenuity of the healthcare workers, especially nurses."
The CM also complimented the healthcare workers for the achievement during this crisis.
Kerala was one among the few states that reported zero Covid vaccine wastage.
The problem the state was now facing was non-availability of vaccines. The Centre should either be prepared to give free vaccines to those over 45 years of age or ensure adequate supply of vaccines to enable the states to procure them, the chief minister said.
Kerala has written to the Union government several times to solve the vaccine shortage, Vijayan said.