THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After one and a half years, the number of daily Covid cases in the state has come down to less than a thousand, said Minister Veena George. She urged not to let the guard down and the aim is to make the state completely Covid free.

The state last reported less than a thousand Covid cases on August 3, 2020. At that time, 962 people were diagnosed with the disease. Then the second wave of Covid hit the state. The number of daily cases never got below 1000 after that. Later, with the third wave, daily Covid cases touched an all-time high. But the Covid defense strategy devised by the state saw results. The number of cases dropped to less than 1,000, the minister said in a statement. The minister said vigilance should be maintained for a few more days and that people should continue wearing masks.

We were able to effectively defend the third wave as well as the first and second wave of Kovid. There has never been a shortage of hospital beds, ICU ventilator facilities or safety equipment. The state did not come up with the strategy used in the first two waves for the third wave. The disease severity was higher for the delta variant. However, the Omicron variant has a lower severity but a higher spread potential. The vaccination drive launched by the state has also borne fruit. The first dose was given to 100% of people over 18 years of age and the second dose to 87% of people. The majority of children between the ages of 15 and 17 were vaccinated. It has been observed that the number of cases is decreasing at a high rate following this.

At the beginning of the third wave, there was a 45 percent increase in Covid cases in the first week of January. In the third week of January, it was up 215 percent. But then it dropped very quickly. The number of cases dropped to minus 39.48 per cent in the last week. The minister also urged the people to remain vigilant to bring down cases to the minimum very soon.