- God’s own country, Kerala for the uninitiated, was hailed as one of the few states which handled the pandemic with great aplomb right from the first virus infection reported and widely appreciated by one and all. The previous health minister of the state was hailed in glorious terms during the first Covid wave for being meticulous to the fault in scientifically carrying out the testing, tracking, and treating protocols. However, it baffles me to witness the state continuing to reel under the confirmed infection rates crossing 20,000 every day for the past few days. It is even more perplexing to note that Kerala is contributing more than half of the country’s daily infection rates over the last few weeks despite efforts at subduing the virulent virus.
PC:
- Note that India’s most developed state in terms of public health infrastructure is finding it extremely difficult to contain the uninterrupted spread of the virus prompting close analysis by experts and governments alike. To be fair, Kerala is doing better than most of the states when it comes to vaccination coverage, testing per million, case fatality rate, the likelihood of detecting infections, and anecdotal evidence of following covid-appropriate-behavior. Contrarily speaking, it also is host to a double-digit test positivity rate as daily infections consistently crossing 20,000, transmission rate greater than 1, and as per the serosurvey, over 55% of the population is in the potentially vulnerable category. Indeed, a paradoxical situation pervades the state on this front.
- Take, for instance, reports emerging suggest that Kerala has a single-dose 48% of its population but full vaccinated statistics is just 21%. The key here is the lower seropositivity in Kerala demanding faster vaccination even though further parameters as compared to other states are more than satisfactory. The moot point to ponder over here is why Kerala is reporting such high infection rates so consistently? Unlike other states, Kerala avoided imposing total lockdown since May-end allowing government offices to function with limited staff, retail outlets opening thrice a week, and imposing full lockdowns only on weekends. Relaxing restrictions during Eid festivities did not help the situation one bit. A combination of all of the above is a decisive factor for sure.
PC: Hindustantimes
- It is noteworthy to point out how Kerala stayed clear of witnessing horrifying scenes of patients and ambulances queuing outside hospitals for admissions, clamor for oxygen, or desperately seeking remdesivir during the second wave’s peak. It only goes to prove that the highly contagious Delta variant has changed the rules of the game. Any complacency or letting our guard down vis-à-vis safety and health guidelines will only offer an open invitation to this or other variants to take advantage of waning immunity. Further, it also substantiates that the virus is alive, kicking, and circulating ominously. It is imperative to escalate disease surveillance through targeted testing, genome sequencing, and district-level serosurveys. Any laxity from here on will be disastrous.
