Thiruvananthapuram: Over 89 per cent of the total population of Kerala have been so far given the first dose of the vaccine against the pandemic disease COVID-19.
As many as 2.37 crore people took the first dose of vaccination in the State, while 98.27 lakh people (36.7 per cent) took both the doses of the vaccine. In the above 45 years age group, 96 per cent of people took the first dose, while 55 per cent got the second dose too.
Significantly, the intensity of the spread of the pandemic disease has also gone down. Of the 1.96 lakh people who underwent treatment for COVID-19 in hospitals in the last week (September 12 to 18), only two per cent took the support of oxygen-supported beds. Only 1 per cent was treated at ICUs during this period.
Compared to previous weeks, the news cases dipped to 40,432. The growth rate of new cases has come down to 23 per cent.
On Sunday, September 19, in all 19,653 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Kerala. A total of 152 COVID-19 deaths too were confirmed on the same day.