Fact Check: New variant driving 'Breakthrough Covid-19' cases in Kerala?

New Delhi, Aug 11: A steady rise in 'Breakthrough Covid-19' cases in Kerala has raised concerns of a new variant hitting the southern state. However, the central government has dismissed reports of suspected new variants as absolutely false.

Kerala accounted for more than half of the COVID-19 cases recorded in the country in the last seven days.

Several media reports have claimed that over 40,000 "breakthrough" cases have been found in Kerala.

Meanwhile, a six-member central team that visited eight districts of Kerala has said from August 1 to August 20, the state may witness around 4.6 lakh COVID-19 cases.

According to the report submitted by the team, the COVID-19 positivity rate was found to be more than 10 per cent in all the eight districts and at some places, it was found to be increasing. Over 80 per cent of the cases were of the Delta variant of the virus.

Contact-tracing was found to be abysmally low -- 1:1.2 to 1:1.7 -- and the Rt value, which was the lowest (0.8) on June 1, is continuously rising with a current Rt value of 1.2.

The current Rt value of Kerala is 1.12. Going by the current trend, it is expected that for the period of August 1 to August 20, the state may witness around 4.62 lakh Covid cases.