Kerala might see a two-fold increase in Covid cases, state Health Minister Veena George said on Friday. She explained that the R Number in some districts was above 1. This value tells the ability of a transmissible disease to spread in a population. R is the number of people one infected person will pass on the virus to.

The Health Minister also added that when genome sequencing was done, it was found that 90% of cases currently in Kerala were caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant. Due to this, the restrictions in the state cannot be lifted or removed completely, she said. However, she added the state also does not wish to impose an indefinite lockdown.

Speaking at the Assembly on Friday, Veena George said that restrictions were important as the state had not yet fully recovered from the second wave and that the third wave was just around the corner.

Kerala had relaxed its restrictions last week, restricting the weekend curfew only to Sundays. The government further announced that all shops can remain open from 7 am to 9 pm every day except on Sundays.

The government plans to impose a triple lockdown in localities where the positivity rate is high — up to 10 per 1000 population.

Kerala has been seeing consistently high cases of COVID-19. On Friday, August 6, the state recorded 19,948 Covid cases and 187 deaths.

According to reports, the state has also been seeing an unusually high number of breakthrough infections. Breakthrough infections of COVID-19 are those that happen even after an individual is fully vaccinated.

A central team that recently visited Pathanamthitta district found that 7,000 vaccinated people in the district had been affected by COVID-19.

The team has now requested samples of genome sequencing in order to understand the high number of cases among vaccinated people. Studies have earlier been done which showed that Delta variant could infect vaccinated people and even overpower immunity developed through vaccination.