India on vaccination drive .. .. Corona containment, failed Kerala module !!

 

Few months have rolled by after the media’s pet State Govt was extolled and awarded for the ‘successful handling’ of coronavirus -  some went overboard in advising their States to follow  the so-called ‘Kerala model’ of tackling coronavirus pandemic.  The reality is otherwise today !!

 

In a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19 as Tamil Nadu celebrates Pongal, officials in Chennai  announced that the city's iconic Marina Beach – on Kanum Pongal day, lakhs of people would have thronged the Beach.  Police ensured that none were allowed inside and the beach remained by and large empty during these days.  Appreciations to the State Govt and Police in ensuring this.  

Britain reported its third-highest daily death toll from the novel coronavirus today  but the number of new infections dropped to its lowest level this year. The number of people recorded as having died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test rose by 1,295 to 88,590. The number of infections per 100,000 people measured over the past 14 days is 901, nearly double that in hard-hit neighbouring Spain, data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control showed.  Portugal's fragile health system is under growing pressure due to a worrying rise in coronavirus infections, with the country reporting 10,947 new cases and 166 deaths on Saturday, the worst surge since the pandemic started last year. The cases, which come a day after a new lockdown was put in place, bring the total number of cases in a country of just over 10 million people to 539,416, with the death toll increasing to 8,709.  The health system, which prior to the pandemic had the lowest number of critical care beds per 100,000 inhabitants in Europe, can accommodate a maximum of 672 COVID-19 patients in ICUs, according to Health Ministry data. There are currently 638 people in ICUs and the Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators said the number of coronavirus patients needing hospitalisation was likely to dramatically increase over the next week. 

Such a situation was apprehended in India but could be avoided due to the good measures taken by our Prime Minister – now the numbers are really low and vaccines have arrived.  As India began its nationwide vaccination drive against Covid-19, as many as 1,91,181 people were vaccinated on Day 1, Union Health Ministry said. A total of 16,755 vaccinators were also involved in the process across India, it said, adding that no case of post-vaccination hospitalisation was reported. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji today launched India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive, the world’s largest inoculation exercise against the novel coronavirus. In a virtual address, an emotional PM Modi paid tribute to scientists and healthcare workers, who have been on the frontlines of the pandemic. He added that safety protocol, including social distancing and wearing masks, must remain in place.  India will administer shots to three crore frontline workers in phase one. There are 3,006 session sites across the country, where 100 beneficiaries each will be given either of India’s two indigenous vaccines, Covaxin or Covishield. Every beneficiary will need to receive two doses of the same vaccine, 28 days apart. 

Since the pandemic hit India in early 2020, over one crore and 5.42 lakh people have been infected with the disease, while close to 1.52 lakh have died. At present, Kerala and Maharashtra are reporting the highest number of daily cases.  Kerala reported 5,960 new COVID-19 cases and 27 related deaths on Saturday, taking the infection count to 8,42,843 and the toll to 3,442, the state government said. There were no new cases reported among the UK returnees to the state, Health Minister K K Shailaja said.

Today Kerala has pushed Tamil Nadu to the 5^th place and here are the statistics:

Location	Total cases	New cases (1 day*)	Cases per 1 million people	Population 2011 census	% as compared population
India	10542841	15,158	7,749	1,210,193,422	0.8712
Maharashtra	1984768	3,145	17,382	112,374,333	1.7662
Karnataka	930668	708	14,529	61,095,297	1.5233
Andhra Pradesh	885710	94	17,934	84,580,777	1.0472
Kerala	836883	5,624	24,166	33,406,061	2.5052
Tamil Nadu	829573	621	12,224	72,147,030	1.1498
Delhi	631884	295	33,287	16,787,941	3.7639
Uttar Pradesh	595614	472	2,916	199,812,341	0.2981

 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
16.1.2021