Kerala district logs over 5,000 breakthrough Covid-19 cases

In a curious case, one district in Kerala has reported more than 5,000 cases of Covid-19 reinfections after two doses of the vaccine, prompting the central government to initiate a probe into the dynamics of the disease at Pathanamthitta.

The district in southern Kerala reported 5,042 cases of Covid-19 reinfections after two doses of the vaccine, Sujit Singh, director, National Centre for Disease Control, here said at a press conference.

The Centre sought information from the state on the severity of the disease for such individuals and how much time had elapsed after their second dose to determine if these cases fit into the description of breakthrough infections.

Read | No Onam gatherings to be allowed in Kerala; TPR crosses 15%

Breakthrough infections are those that happened two weeks after the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccination.

Also, nearly 15,000 people were infected in Pathanamthitta after the first shot.

While more than 51 per cent of last week’s total cases come from Kerala, the officials are worried about upcoming Onam festivities, which last year had triggered Kerala’s upward journey in the Covid-19 trajectory.

With the state reporting a reproduction number of 1.12, the Malabar state may report an additional 4.62 lakh new cases between August 1 and August 20. Nearly 55 per cent people in the state are still vulnerable as the seropositivity is just about 44 per cent, according to the ICMR’s latest sero-survey.