Karnataka, Kerala witnessed increasing number of Covid-19 active cases over last four weeks: Health Ministry

Karnataka and Kerala are the two southern states with a clear increasing trend in Covid-19 cases seen during the last month, while Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu exhibit a definitive declining trend.

This was evident from the weekly caseload data shared by the Union Health Ministry, which found that nearly 50% of India’s 9 lakh plus active cases were concentrated in three states – Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. If the net is widened a bit, then 78% of the cases would be seen in 10 states.

The weekly trend of active cases over the last four weeks is not showing a definitive trend in Maharashtra, but a clear case of steady increase is visible in Karnataka whereas in Kerala it is a sudden surge, possibly due to the Onam festivities when people lowered their guards and mingled freely.

In Maharashtra, the number of active cases was 2,37,292 in the week starting on September 8. It rose to 2,91,630 in the subsequent week (starting on Sept 15) but started falling afterwards to reach 2,52,721 cases in the current week (Oct 6).

But in case of Karnataka, it’s a steady rise from 97,020 on Sept 8 to 1,15,496 on Oct 6. Similarly in Kerala, there were 22,133 active cases on Sept 8, which ballooned to 84,958 on Oct 6 – nearly four times jump.

"For Maharashtra, it is too early to take a call as the state has to be observed for a longer duration. In Karnataka, there is an increase in the case, but the highest increase has been seen in Kerala and the surge is possibly due to the Onam festivities,” Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said here on Tuesday.

India’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 1,03,569, out of which 884 were added in the last 24 hours. Nearly 48% of the toll occurred in 25 districts, out of which 15 districts are from a single state – Maharashtra. The two Karnataka districts in the list are Bengaluru Urban and Mysuru.

The Centre on Tuesday also released a national clinical management protocol for Covid-19 based on Ayurveda but made it clear that it was not a replacement of the standard treatment protocol released by the Union Health Ministry on the advice of the Indian Council of Medical Research. At most, it is a supplementary protocol.

"There should not be any false sense of security among those who would be using this. This is in addition to the standard protocol. There is no firm cure for Covid-19 in this protocol, but it helps in Covid management,” said Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, the Ministry of Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy.

The protocol which recommends the use of several medicinal plant product-based concoctions have been prepared by Ayurveda experts on the basis of empirical knowledge and the trend emerging from ongoing studies. A panel of experts headed by former ICMR director general V M Katoch vetted the protocol.