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India's Kerala State Shows Way in Coronavirus Fight

Anjana Pasricha

   NEW DELHI - Before many countries had fully grasped the devastation
   that COVID-19 would bring, health authorities in India's southern state
   of Kerala were closely monitoring a 20-year-old student who returned
   from Wuhan, China on January 25.

   Days later, as soon she reported some uneasiness in her throat, she was
   shifted to an isolation ward in a hospital and her family members were
   placed in quarantine. Tests showed she had COVID 19 --she became
   India's first case of the dreaded infection.

   The state moved fast because by mid-January it had already put in place
   a strategy to isolate people who showed symptoms in hospitals, trace
   their contacts and put them in home quarantine.

   Three months on, Kerala is being hailed for not just flattening the
   curve of the deadly infection even as it spikes in many parts of the
   country but for having an extremely low mortality rate. Only three of
   400 reported cases have died so far -- less than one percent,
   significantly less than the rest of India or in many parts of the
   world. About two-thirds of the patients, including a 93-year-old man
   and his 88-year-old wife have been cured -- the country's best recovery
   rate.

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