Kerala’s fight against COVID-19
How a small state became India’s flag-bearer in the fight against COVID-19 when the bigger states like Maharashtra and Gujarat are struggling to control the virus?
On Jan 30, India’s first COVID-19 case was reported in Kerala. On March 1, Kerala reported its second wave of coronavirus cases when a family of three who had returned from Italy were tested positive. On March 28, a Kochi native becomes India’s second COVID fatality. By the end of March, a total of 240 cases were reported in Kerala. In March, Kerala has the second-highest COVID-19 cases in India.
As of April 19, Kerala reported a total of 401 COVID cases and 2 deaths. More than half of the patients had recovered from the virus. Kerala recorded a mortality rate of 0.49% which is the lowest among all the states. The state now ranks twelfth in overall COVID-19 cases.For the first time after 45 days, Kerala reported no COVID-19 positive cases on 1 May 2020. Kerala’s fight against COVID-19 has received applause from all corners of the world. How Kerala became a pioneer in fighting this pandemic?. Let’s discuss how Kerala is fighting the corona virus.
Current Status
As of 2nd May, 499 COVID cases and 3 deaths have been confirmed. 400 patients have recovered. There are 103 actual cases. Kerala has a 74% recovery rate. Many experts have predicted that Kerala will ‘flatten the curve’ soon. But the health officials aren’t ruling out the possibility of another outbreak of the virus.
Why Kerala’s fight against the Coronavirus is considered special?
Kerala’s recovery rate of 78% is highest among the states which have more than 100 cases. Kerala has conducted more corona virus tests than other states. Kerala has conducted more than 23,000 tests. Kerala’s mortality rate is 0.53% which is the lowest in India. Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh are the only states (cases more than 100) that managed to restrict the mortality rate under 1%.
Larger states like Maharashtra and Gujarat are struggling to contain the virus. As of April 22, Maharashtra has witnessed 251 deaths while Kerala has reported only 3 COVID related deaths. On March 26, a day after the national lockdown was announced, Maharashtra and Kerala reported almost the same number of cases at 122 and 120, respectively. 18 days after the lock down, the number of cases in Maharashtra has jumped 16 times to 1,982, including 149 deaths. In comparison, Kerala has 374 cases including 2 deaths. Kerala has conducted 401 tests per million whereas Maharashtra has conducted only 298 tests per million. Maharashtra has a 7% mortality rate which is approximately 14 times more than that of Kerala.
Factors that make Kerala’s fight against COVID successful
1. Preparedness of the state
Kerala’s first three cases also happened to be India’s first recorded cases. Three students studying in China’s Hubei province returned to the state and tested positive between 30 January and 3 February. It is evident that the State was already prepared to fight against the pandemic when a draft policy on how to fight the virus was issued on 26 January. There were guidelines issued by the Kerala Government for every step in the state’s COVID 19 action plan. When the third case was reported, the state government declared the outbreak as a state disaster. SRT or State Response Team consisting of 24 senior healthcare officials was created. District-level Corona action teams were created. These district-level activities were coordinated by Collectors and District Medical Officers under the supervision of a cabinet minister.
On March 10, the Government ordered all the educational systems to be shut down. Isolation wards were set up in various hospitals, schools, prisons. Police were deployed at airports and state borders. Passengers travelling through airports were subjected to mandatory screening. A compulsory 28 days home quarantine was prescribed to those returning from Corona virus affected areas/countries. ‘Break the Chain’ campaign was initiated by the Government, which aims to educate people about the importance of personal hygiene and social distancing. On March 23, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced a statewide lock down. This was announced before the central government declared national lock down. Daily briefing of the situation is being conducted by Chief Minister along with the Health minister since January 30.
People who had shown symptoms were admitted to the isolation ward. They will be released if the test result came negative. A typical isolation ward team consist of seven staff nurses, a head nurse, two nursing assistants and three cleaning staff. Doctors and nurses were advised not to go their homes until the situation became normal. Health workers gathered information about the travel history of the corona affected persons and constructed route maps.
State’s handling of the crisis under the leadership of Health minister K.K Shailaja received acclaim from various media outlets. The media nicknamed her “Corona Slayer”. Her experience in dealing with Nipah Virus of 2018 has definitely come in handy. This science teacher turned politician has definitely set a model for the rest of the world by successfully handling the crisis in Kerala. Foreign media praised her vision and foresight in the time where global leaders like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson had shown skepticism during the initial stage of Corona Outbreak in their countries.
2.Kerala Model
From the inception of the state, Governments of Kerala irrespective of the party has heavily invested in health care and education. Kerala ranks top in almost all social indicators and has a very high standard of living. Pre-existing healthcare has provided strength to Kerala’s fight against the pandemic. Kerala always succeeded in maintaining very high standards in health care. Unlike other states, Kerala’s rural areas don’t face a shortage of health care facilities. There are over 2,700 government medical institutions in the state, with 330 beds per 100,000 population, the highest in the country. There are over 100 medical colleges spread across the state. In five years, Kerala will have one doctor per 200 people, while the World Health Organisation recommends only one doctor per 1,000. India’s national average is one doctor for 2,000 people.
Kerala’s educational system has been rated the best in India. Niti Aayog’s recent School Education Quality Index 2016–17 saw Kerala topping the category of large states with 82.2 percentage. The state ranks first in literacy rate too with 93.91 per cent. Private institutions mainly owned by religious organizations and the state-run schools have been able to provide education to almost all the children in the state. Kerala’s well-developed educational system has proven successful in creating awareness and health and hygienic consciousness at the grassroots level.
3. The attitude of the people
Kerala witnessed only a few instances where people defied the lock down. Most of the people complied with state and central Government orders. Pictures of people maintaining social distancing while buying groceries have gone viral and received applause from the netizens. People limited their Vishu and Easter celebrations to their homes.
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Challenges
We still cannot say Kerala has ‘flattened the curve’. Recent outbreaks of the virus in the neighboring states has caused concerns among the health officials because the state has porous borders.The central government has included two districts (Kannur and Kottayam) in the red zone list and 10 districts in orange Zone. After the lock down, Kerala is expected to receive a large number of natives and migrants from other states and countries. The state should be further equipped to conduct effective testing on people arriving in the state after lockdown.
We cannot expect that no new cases will arise after the lockdown. So there is a high chance, restrictions imposed earlier will be continued after the lock down. The possibility of another outbreak of the virus or a surge in the cases cannot be ruled out.
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