What Kerala seems to have done right

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  14.04.2020

Kerala has been reporting fresh cases of the novel coronavirus in single digits for the past few days, a flattening of a deadly curve by measures that included early detection, aggressive testing and contact tracing, and a 28-day quarantine period — double that prescribed by the WHO. And underlying it all and making it possible was a robust public health system.

From one infection on January 30 to 378 on April 13 and just two deaths so far, the state has seen 198 people recover. It recorded its highest number of positive cases in a day on March 27 (39 cases), and the lowest on March 19 (1). On April 12, it was just two cases.

Kerala realised early on the potential lethality of a curve arcing sharply upward. As early as January 18, the state health department issued a Covid-19 alert and began to screen passengers arriving from outside the country’s shores, initially from the cradle of the virulent spread: China. International passengers arriving in the state were given a health card in which they had to list their travel details and health condition. All the state’s five airports were linked to ambulances and emergency response in district hospitals.

India joins trials for possible drug

India is part of the WHO ‘solidarity trials’ for Remdesivir, the drug developed for use against Ebola, which has shown encouraging results in serious Covid-19 patients needing enhanced oxygen or ventilator support, and will be able to access any benefits that accrue from the anti-viral medication once it is established for clinical use. P 7

Contact tracing was meticulous

Any passenger with a fever, cough or sore throat was immediately shifted to a linked hospital and from there a message passed to the district medical office.

Over the next week, it set up district control rooms, started procuring masks, gloves, other personal protection equipment (PPE) and medicines. It ordered district hospitals to designate isolation wards. Within weeks, on February 4, it declared the Covid-19 threat a state disaster.

Contact tracing was meticulous. Manual surveillance, from January 30 to March 8, began with interviewing individual patients and working backwards to people with whom they had been in touch. From March 9, it introduced spatio temporal mapping after a family of three came didn’t report their travel to Italy. This involved a detailed flowchart that depicted the date, time and movement of each affected person, based on call details and CCTV footage.

Home quarantine was strict — 12,470 were in home quarantine on March 16; this rose to 1,22,676 people on April 11. Each person in home quarantine, for 28 days instead of the recommended 14, received an average of 2 to 3 calls daily from various authorities. About 16,000 teams ensured those in home quarantine stayed home.

Full report on www.toi.in