41 pregnant women dead, 149 patients took their own lives due to Covid-19: Kerala Health Minister

41 pregnant women have died of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic last year said Kerala Health Minister Veena George during question hour in the Kerala Assembly. The state minister was responding to questions raised by the Congress legislator TJ Vinod. In addition to this, reported data shows that 149 other patients committed suicide after being diagnosed with the disease, she added.

Responding to another query by Mathew Kuzhalnadan (Congress), she said as per the reports, there seems to be no difference in the findings of the recent sero prevalence scientific study conducted by the state health department and the similar surveys by the ICMR.

Kerala's current sero positivity rate is 82.61% following a study conducted by the state government in the period during August to September of this year. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research or ICMR study report, the sero positivity rate in Kerala was 0.33 per cent, 0.88 per cent and 11.6 per cent in May, August and December in 2020 respectively and 44.4 per cent in May 2021, the state Health Minister noted. Higher levels of sero prevalence were found in the coastal regions of Kerala, in people who had taken both doses of the vaccine.

This could easily be explained by the fact that Kerala was progressing with vaccinations and was testament to the 'effective COVID-19 management initiatives of the state government.' Even as the sero prevalence studies showed increased antibody resistance in the population, 17% of Keralites were still vulnerable to the virus, the minister said.