Reportedly it has been 97 days since india recorded its first COVID-19 case on january 30 when a medical student from wuhan in china returned to Kerala. Since then, the epidemic has surged across the country with nearly 50,000 confirmed patients and 1694 deaths as of wednesday evening, as per figures by the Union Ministry of health and Family Welfare. And while states like maharashtra, gujarat and delhi have seen huge spikes in infections, kerala has over the past few weeks emerged as a model for its containment strategy. The state that witnessed the first three COVID-19 cases in the country has not only managed to rein in the number of infections but also has the distinction of recording one of the highest recovery rates.
Out of the total 503 patients who have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease, 469 persons have recovered in kerala, and only 30 are still under hospitalisation. The state’s recovery rate is a whopping 93.24% far beyond the national average of 28.71%. Kerala’s numbers stand out in comparison to other states that have over 100 cases. At 57.29% telangana comes a distant second when it comes to recoveries. rajasthan (49.25%) karnataka (49.18%) and Andhra( 41.02%) are also among the states with the highest rate of recoveries.
Dr amar Fettle, Kerala’s nodal officer for infectious diseases, modestly insists that the state went by the rule book. “From the medical side of it, I don’t think there is a specific thing we are doing. We have identified them (positive cases) as early as possible,” says Dr Amar, adding that kerala has been following the standard protocol prescribed by the indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). However, the difference between kerala and the rest may lie in the speed at which the state managed to trace contacts of confirmed COVID-19 patients and contain the spread of the virus.
