India Coronavirus Dispatch: Kerala warns of lockdown, UP's cases dip

Karnataka offers ventilators but private hospitals say they don't have the staff to use them

Confusion over isolation: In Delhi, confusion over institutional isolation of those older than 60 and with comorbidities has persisted. In at least two districts, Delhi government norms allowing for patients to be home quarantined depending on a doctor’s assessment have not been followed. On September 21, Southwest Delhi passed an order stating that all such patients will have to be admitted to Covid Care Centres or Covid Health Centres. This was later withdrawn on Sunday. West Delhi is also following the same template, although authorities say no written orders have been given. Mandatory shifting of patients to Covid Care centres had previously been the cause of friction between the Delhi government and city state's Lieutenant Governor. Read more here.

Manpower, ventilator shortfall in Karnataka: Karnataka announced recently that it will let out ventilators to private hospitals for government-referred patients. However, private establishments now say they do not even have the manpower to handle additional ventilators. Nearly 300 ventilators might be rented out private hospitals. While they have welcomed the move, they say that at any given point nearly 15 per cent of the nursing staff is either undergoing treatment or under quarantine. Others say that rather than ventilators, hospitals now need High Flow Nasal Cannula (HFNC) machines for oxygen therapy more. The state’s health activists, meanwhile, have questioned the government’s move given that government hospitals themselves do not have adequate number of ventilators. Read more here.

In Numbers

Worrying signs from Kerala: Kerala on Sunday reported over 7,000 new cases. This prompted the state government to warn people of another complete lockdown. The southern state has been witnessing record daily numbers consecutively for the past 5 days. Kerala Health Minister, meanwhile, blamed people’s “irresponsible behaviour” for the recent surge in cases. In September, the state added almost exactly 100,000 new infections. A third of these cases have been reported in just the last 5 days. Kerala has fewer deaths compared to high-caseload deaths but authorities warn that this trend could change if cases continue to grow at the current rate. The fact that it has a high proportion of elderly people in its population is a worrying factor. Read more here.

Covid slowing in UP: The slowing of new Covid-19 infections in Uttar Pradesh — noticed first last week — has continued this week as 32,810 more people tested positive this week. This was a nearly 23 per cent decrease in the weekly caseload. Last week saw 42,000 cases being added and the one before that reported over 45,000 cases. The state’s average growth rate has dropped to 1.32 per cent and its doubling rate has subsequently increased. The slowing of the pandemic has been boosted by a rise in recoveries that reached a record rate of 84.19 per cent on Sunday. Another first for the state was the fact that recoveries exceeded daily new cases on most days in the week. Read more here.

Covid testing declines: India has been seeing a significant fall in new cases in the last five days after daily new additions breached the 90,000-mark on most days in September. This fall, however, could be on account of a simultaneous drop in testing numbers as well. Despite a sharp increase in the number of confirmed cases, 10 states have seen a sharp fall in the number of tests in the last 10 days. The number of tests per million people dropped from 811 to 722 over the last 10 days even as the positivity rate increased slightly. Maharashtra and Assam, in particular, have seen a significant dip in testing despite a steady surge in cases. The same holds true for states like Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, M.P., Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. Read more here.