A year after first Covid-19 case, Kerala continues to grapple with pandemic

On Saturday, the state reported another high of 6,282 new Covid-19 cases with a positivity rate of 10.51 per cent while the active caseload stands at 71,469.

A year after the country’s first Covid-19 case was detected in Thrissur on Jan 30 last Kerala is still grappling with pandemic situation with high active caseload and test positivity rate (TPR), health ministry statistics show. As fever still runs high it exposes tall claims of the state government and leaves many questions on its pandemic management.

Image for representation. (ANI)

On Saturday, the state reported another high of 6,282 new Covid-19 cases with a positivity rate of 10.51 per cent while the active caseload stands at 71,469. According to the latest statistics, at least 48 per cent of the country’s new cases (13,082) are from the southern state. Among 10 worst-affected districts, seven are from Kerala. As the situation remained grim, the state government, which basked in old glory, turned defensive.

“We take criticism positively. But some people are criticising us just for the sake of criticism. They now find fault with all our measures. But we can say the state’s mortality rate (below 0.5 per cent) is still the lowest in the country,” said state health minister KK Shailaja adding the government was doing everything possible to contain the spread of the virus.

Despite chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s claim last week, that daily tests will be increased to one lakh, on Saturday 59,759 samples were tested and more than half were antigen tests.

Earlier, experts had warned the state to shed its obsession with low-accuracy and cheap antigen tests and opt for more RT-PCR tests. Messing up of data, fatigue among health workers and system and over-confidence after the arrival of vaccine aggravated the situation and the state will have to do enough homework to contain the spread, they said. The state also turned its back on its scientific community ignoring scholastic and clinical research during the outbreak “but it was interested more in running commentaries and PR exercise,” they said.

“Controlling the pandemic is not a political exercise. The government should have roped in enough public health experts and epidemiologists. But they were given a short shrift,” said Dr S S Lal, a US-returned public health expert.

“Kerala is by no means a success story but I won’t call it a failure too. Real epidemic started when people started arriving from other states and the middle-east. There were tell-tale signs to community spread but many ignored it. The rest of the story is a slow and steady spread,” said G Pramod Kumar, former senior advisor to the United National Development Programme.

Let’s see how things unfolded in the state from day one. “I was speechless when I heard my daughter was positive. When she returned home from Wuhan (epicentre in China), where she was pursuing her medical studies, we were really relieved. But it was short-lived,” said the father of the 21-year-old girl who was the country's first Covid-19 patient.

“My wife and I insisted we should meet her and enough prodding was required. First time we both wore heavy PPE kits in our life and met our daughter. When I recollect the meeting, it leaves enough shivers down my spine,” he said. Soon after this, the entire family were moved to an institutional quarantine centre.

Two days later, two other China-returned students, who came along with her, tested positive. Both turned negative after two weeks but the first victim had to spend 28 days in the hospital to turn negative and another two weeks under mandatory observation.

For almost two months, the state managed the contagion well and the pandemic was restricted to China-returnees. But in March, things took a dramatic turn after a family returned from Italy hid their travel history and interacted with many in Pathanamthitta. The state, for the first time, heard a new word “super spreader”. At least 22 of family members and neighbours were infected but all of them were nursed back to their life.

The countrywide lockdown helped the state to manage things well and it put severe restrictions on even people coming from other states. Next two months (May-June) the state was on the verge of flattening the curve and many, including the international media, lauded its pandemic control measures.

But things slowly shifted after the lockdown was lifted and its large population from the Gulf countries started returning to the state, still it managed its numbers well.

After Onam festival in September last year, cases started swelling again. Many, including Union health minister Harsh Vardhan, blamed the state for lowering its guard that resulted in the second wave. The situation aggravated after local body elections in December, the wave continues.

But chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan put up a brave face saying the state did whatever it can and there was no flaw on its part.“Ups and downs are nature of the pandemic. Even some of the developed countries are still struggling with the second and third phase of the pandemic. Look at the case of Scandinavian countries,” he said, adding that the situation will improve by next month. He said another lockdown was not feasible and the state will have to learn to live with the pandemic for some more time.