KK Shailaja - Health Minister & Former Science Teacher Leading Kerala's Fight Against COVID-19

Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja aka Shailaja Teacher has been named as the winner of World's Top 50 Thinkers Thinkers of COVID-19 Age by UK-based Prospect Magazine.

Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand is ranked second in the list that was prepared from the result of a public ballot.

"So deft was her handling of a 2018 outbreak of the deadly Nipah disease that it was commemorated in a film, Virus. In 2020, she was the right woman in the right place. When Covid-19 was still ¡°a China story¡± in January, she not only accurately foresaw its inevitable arrival, but also fully grasped the implications," the magazine wrote about the Kerala Health Minister.

The COVID-19 outbreak is an unprecedented disaster and leaders around the world are still learning how to deal with the crisis that is evolving every day. The situation in India is no different.

The Central government, various state governments, and agencies are still working out their strategies to combat the spread of COVID-19. But Kerala was the one state which stood out and was able to keep tabs on the pandemic.

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The state was the first to report COVID-19 in India, back in January. In a matter of days, it swung into action on a war-footing level, anticipating the explosion of cases that were to follow.

The COVID-19 response of Kerala was spearheaded by state health minister KK Shailaja - or Shailaja Teacher as she is fondly called. As the Health Minister, Shailaja had the experience of tackling another epidemic - the Nipah Virus outbreak in the state in 2018.

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Though it was on a much smaller scale, the Nipah, just like COVID-19 had no known medication and had all the potential to be a disaster. But aggressive testing, contact tracing, and hospitalization meant that the state managed to reduce the death toll to just 19. Kerala's response had even won praises from the WHO.

After the first three cases were reported in the state, the former high school teacher turned politician took a similar approach and it has paid dividends.

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Kerala, which until a few weeks back had the most number of COVID-19 cases, has seen its numbers plummet and a spike in the number of recoveries, with just two deaths so far.

"Coronavirus mortality rate in Kerala is below 0.5% but in the world, it is more than 5%. In some places, it is even more than 10%. Most of the people who are in isolation in the hospitals are stable and very few are in critical stage. We are treating them with most care. The discharging or cure rate is also very high in Kerala because of our systematic work. We evaluate everything every day," Shailaja recently told ANI.

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The first COVID-19 patient in India, a medical student who had returned from Wuhan, who was also the first to recover from the infection had said that the health minister used to call her while she was in the hospital and encouraged her to remain positive.

It was not just the patients who be reassured by the minister - for nearly two weeks Shailaja held daily press conferences briefing the media about the developments in the state due to COVID-19. Her social media pages also were on the hyperactive mode with tips, advice, and words of encouragement.

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Now, as the state has managed to flatten the curve, and announced a relaxation on restrictions, Shailaja said that things can still go haywire anytime if we are not alert, but at the same time, life has to go on, if not, there will be other issues.

"It should not be like, we saved people from COVID, but people die out of hunger. So whatever relaxations are now announced to be effective after April 20, should not be an occasion to forget the alertness that we maintained. Instead, the relaxation should be used to revive the economy and it should happen by keeping all the rules and regulations of maintaining social distancing," she said.

The fact that she is being rated by the masses above someone like Jacinda Ardern is a testament to the hard work she has put in.