Kerala gears up for next wave of COVID-19

As the number of Sars coronavirus cases starts surging with every passing day, Kerala’s health authorities sprang into action and has made arrangements to meet the surging need for treatment facilities in the State.
The first step was to increase the first line treatment centres to 56 with arrangements to treat around 50,000 COVID-19 patients at a time. Over the past two months, the third wave of the infections pushed the active cases to over 7,000. Kerala’s Health Minister K. .K Shailaja said experts have forecast a surge in the number of cases in August and was confident that the government would be able to manage the situation.
With thousands of non-resident Keralites returning from across the globe and other parts of the country, the State has seen a sharp increase in fresh cases since. Even as the number of COVID-19 cases are low compared to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the state is gearing up for any contingency and has added more first line treatment centres (FLTCs). It has also decided to rope in temporary staff so that the FLTCs can treat up to 50,000 patients
“We already have two COVID hospitals in each district. Then as the number increased, we opened one FLTC for each COVID hospital. Thus we already have 28 FLTCs. Now we have given direction t to increase the number to 56. That is one COVID hospital will have two FLTCs,” Shailaja told a news agency. She also said the government had already given directions to open in each of the 941 panchayats at least one FLTC where a special medical team would take care of asymptomatic and less complicated patients.
Some FLTCs have up to 500 beds and at least 2,000 people can be accommodated in each of the 14 district districts in the state.
While the country’s three first COVID-19 patients in the state recovered, effective steps, including triple lockdown in areas such as Kasargod, which witnessed high number of cases early, brought down the active cases to just 16 on May 8, that marked the end of the second spell of COVID-19.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had declared then that the coronavirus curve has flattened though he had cautioned a third wave cannot be ruled out when the lockdown norms are eased and people allowed to return to the state. As he predicted, the state has been seeing a steady spike in new cases with people stranded due to the lockdown in various parts of the globe, especially the Gulf nations, and other states returning home.