Pinarayi Vijayan briefs PM Modi about Kerala's COVID-19 situation

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], July 16 (ANI): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the steps taken by the state to tackle the second wave of COVID-19 in a video conference with him.
Presenting the COVID scenario in the state, the CM said the second wave, which began in April, was the first major detection of the highly contagious delta virus.
"The test positivity rate was close to 30 per cent. Now it has dropped to 10.4 per cent. The second wave started in Kerala later than other regions. Kerala has tried to contain the spread of the disease in such a way that the COVID peak can be delayed so that the health sector could accommodate all health requirements and succeeded in it. As a part of it, Kerala still has more patients than any other region," the Chief Minister said in the meeting.
Vijayan explained that there Kerala has been able to control the disease by conducting the necessary testing and effective implementation of quarantine and treatment.
"Kerala is still able to keep the mortality rate to 0.48 per cent," he said.
Regarding vaccination, Vijayan said that so far 1.17 crore people in the state have been given the first dose of vaccine and 44.18 lakh people have been given the second dose of vaccine.
Chief Minister requested the Prime Minister to make the required quantity of vaccine available in Kerala.

"Kerala has asked for 60 lakh doses of the vaccine to be made available in July and August to avoid vaccine shortages. A letter was sent to the Prime Minister on July 11 in this regard. There should be support from the Central Government for the more effective implementation of COVID vaccination," he added. (ANI)