India News | 43% of ICUs & 75% of Ventilators in Govt Sector Still Vacant; Health Min

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 27 (PTI) Even as Kerala continued to report over 30,000 positive cases for the third consecutive day, Health Minister Veena George on Friday said 43 per cent of Intensive Care Units and 75 per cent of ventilators in the government sector are still vacant.

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While speaking to media here, George said 66 per cent of beds in the Covid First Line Treatment Centres (CFLTC) are also currently vacant.

She also said that Kerala was the only state which had undertaken studies related to the breakthrough infections.

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"At least 43 per cent of ICUs and 75 per cent of ventilators in the government sector are currently vacant. Eighty two per cent of beds available in the Domiciliary Care Centres (DCC) under various local self government bodies are vacant," she said.

The Minister said that only 6,013 beds out of 33,394 across 720 DCCs in the state are in use.

She also said that the state was able to maintain a low Case Fatality Rate of 0.5 per cent despite the high population density.

"According to the Serosurveillance study conducted by the ICMR, only 42.7 per cent of the total population of Kerala has been found to be having antibodies, meaning that more than 50 per cent of the population is still susceptible to infection which means we need to be more careful," she said.

She said 70.24 percent of the population has been administered the first dose of the vaccine and 25.51 per cent, the second dose.

The minister also said that Kerala reports one in every six cases of infection in the state, whereas the national average was one in 33 cases.

"There are states in north India which identifies one among 100 cases of infection," she said.

She cautioned the people to avoid gatherings.

Kerala continued to report over 30,000 cases for the third consecutive day on Friday and showed an increased Test Positivity Rate, while 179 deaths took the the toll to 20,313.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)