Once Celebrated As A Success Story, Kerala Likely To Have 10-20K Daily COVID Cases In September

A few months ago the world was looking at Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea and Kerala as models to effectively contain the spread of COVID-19??

But now all the above mentioned are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases, though not at an alarming level yet when compared to others.

BCCL

In the early days, with its robust public healthcare system and experience in dealing with the Nipah virus a few years ago, the southern state stood out for its response to COVID-19 in India.

Things began taking a turn for the worse in Kerala after the lockdown was lifted and interstate and travel from abroad were restored.

AFP

In early May, Kerala had three days without any new infections and the number of active cases had dropped to just 34.

But from there the number of cases began spiking and in a matter of few weeks breached the 1000-mark for the first time.

Now the state is recording over 1000 new cases every day taking the total to over 40,000.

But according to the Kerala government, the worst is yet to come.

KK Shailaja Teacher

Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja said that coronavirus transmission in the state will increase rapidly in the coming months.

The minister said the state can expect 10,000-20,000 cases daily. She added that efforts are on to deal with it. Shailaja, however, added that there could be more deaths with the increase in the number of cases.

Kerala which has so far conducted over 10 lakh COVID-19 tests is also trying to scale it up.

On Thursday, the Kerala government decided to allow anyone who what themselves to get tested for COVID-19 to do that.

According to the decision, anyone can walk into any approved private hospital or lab can get themselves tested without a prescription.

AFP

Kerala is also the only state in India so far to acknowledge community transmission of COVID-19, something that states with a much higher number of cases are still in denial.

While it is still far better than many of the Indian states, what is happening in Kerala is a wakeup call for the rest of the country.

Kerala might have celebrated a little too early, and thus let its guard down, allowing the virus to resurfaces again where the spread is out of control.?

It is also a lesson for the post-lockdown India where the restarting economy has been the priority despite the alarming spread of COVID-19.