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

For almost two months after the outbreak, Kerala managed to restrict the spread of the disease. But in March, things took a dramatic turn after an Italy-returned family hid their travel history and interacted with many in Pathanamthitta.

A year after the country’s first Covid-19 case was detected in Thrissur on Jan 30 last year, Kerala continues to be in the throes of the pandemic, registering record highest active cases and test positivity rate (TPR). As on Friday, the state’s active case load is 72, 238 with a TPR of 10.66. Not just that, at least 44% of the country’s all new cases are from the southern state.

Kerala’s Covid-19 numbers rose sharply since people began returning to the state.(ANI)

Kerala’s first Covid-19 positive case, also the first in the country, was a 21-year- old female medical student, who tested positive four days after her return from disease epicentre of Wuhan in China. The girl’s father, a small-time businessman in Thrissur, told HT he was shattered at that moment.

“My wife and I insisted on meeting her and enough prodding was required (for it to be allowed). For the first time in our lives, we both wore heavy PPE kits and met our daughter. When I recollect the meeting, it sends shivers down my spine,” he said.

Soon after, the entire family was shifted to an institutional quarantine centre.

Two days later, two other students, who had returned from China with the girl, also tested positive. Both turned negative after two weeks but the first patient had to spend 28 days in the hospital to turn negative and then another two weeks under mandatory observation.

“I have talked about it enough. I don’t want to explain it all over again,” she refused to talk about the gruelling days.

For almost two months after the outbreak, Kerala managed to restrict the spread of the disease. But in March, things took a dramatic turn after an Italy-returned family hid their travel history and interacted with many in Pathanamthitta.

The state saw its first super spreader case which infected at least 22 others in the family and among the neighbours, including over 90-years old great grandparents. However, all of them were nursed back to life.

During the countrywide lockdown between the end of March and the first week of May, the state managed things well. In the next two months (May-June), Kerala was on the verge of flattening the Covid curve and many, including the international media, lauded its pandemic control measures.

But things took a turn for the worse when a large number of residents started returning to the state from the Gulf countries in special flights organised by the Central government.

After the Onam festival in the first week of September, cases again started to swell in the state. Many, including Union health minister Harsh Vardan, blamed the state for lowering its guard resulting in the second wave of infection. Situation aggravated in November again and it has yet not been contained fully.

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

Experts like him blame the situation on the “over-confidence” of the state and its over-dependence on the rapid antigen tests, which they claim led to the rise in infections and the high positivity rate. They even allege that the state was not willing to admit that it was an epidemic hub and flaunted old records to try and paint a rosy picture.

However, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan put up a brave face saying the state did whatever it could and there was no flaw in the government's planning or execution.

“Ups and downs are the nature of the pandemic. Even some of the developed countries are still struggling with the second and the third phase of the pandemic. Look at the case of Scandinavian countries,” he said, adding that the situation will improve by next month.

He added that clamping another lockdown was not feasible and the state will have to learn to live with the pandemic, at least for some more time.