Unmindful of the high positive cases reported daily, Maharashtra has tested aggressively, while Delhi has done the opposite. Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have performed excellently, while Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Telangana have been laggards. Gujarat remains an enigma. On June 20, a month after 1,00,000 novel coronavirus cases were reported, India crossed … Continue reading How States have fared the COVID-19 fight
Kerala
COVID-19 death is a wake-up call to improve surveillance in the area: Giridhara Babu
Increase in testing alone cannot explain an increase in the number of cases during the lockdown. It is also possible that the surveillance systems in some States might have missed a cluster or two of infections during the earlier phase of the outbreak, which has resulted in a large number of cases now being detected, … Continue reading COVID-19 death is a wake-up call to improve surveillance in the area: Giridhara Babu
Coronavirus: How Kerala achieved the much acclaimed zero cases
While active involvement of all the stakeholders who compliment each other especially during the crisis has worked in Kerala's favour, these are not measures put in place to fight coronavirus but has been a legacy of the State. It’s a success born out of decades-old social revolution and development. With containment strategies in place even … Continue reading Coronavirus: How Kerala achieved the much acclaimed zero cases
Coronavirus testing in India needs to be expanded exponentially, strategically, Lancet says
While acknowledging that India was “quick to close its international borders and enforce an immediate lockdown”, the editorial published in The Lancet today (April 25) says that the lockdown is already having the “desired effect of flattening the epidemic curve”. It is also critical of the low testing rates, the hasty manner in which shutdown … Continue reading Coronavirus testing in India needs to be expanded exponentially, strategically, Lancet says
COVID-19: Kerala takes a regressive step by narrowing testing criteria
If samples of people with mild symptoms to be tested each day is indeed delaying testing of more severe cases at this early stage of the pandemic, one shudders to think what it would be if and when community spread becomes widespread in Kerala. Even as the World Health Organization has been urging countries including … Continue reading COVID-19: Kerala takes a regressive step by narrowing testing criteria
COVID-19: Contacts with mild symptoms will not be tested, Kerala says
Kerala’s revised novel coronavirus testing guidelines are in contradiction with ICMR’s. Already, only those who have returned from countries with ongoing novel coronavirus transmission and showing symptoms and their contacts are being tested in India. Kerala has narrowed it down further. People — contacts and those who have returned from countries with ongoing novel coronvirus transmission … Continue reading COVID-19: Contacts with mild symptoms will not be tested, Kerala says
Coronavirus: Opacity in the time of an outbreak can kill more people
China could have contained the spread with very little effort and resources had it been transparent and acted on time. Downplaying and being secretive about public health issues, particularly novel virus outbreaks, as it found out during SARS, and then now, can be very counterproductive. From quick sequencing of the whole genome of the coronavirus … Continue reading Coronavirus: Opacity in the time of an outbreak can kill more people
Explainer: When can people transmit the novel coronavirus?
Doctors at two independent labs in Munich in Germany isolated infectious virus from the pharynx of patients experiencing mild symptoms. These patients with early symptoms of common cold may be able to transmit the novel coronavirus to other persons, they claim. The spread of the novel coronavirus in mainland China continues unabated. On February 5, … Continue reading Explainer: When can people transmit the novel coronavirus?
Nipah virus outbreak exposes the chinks in Kerala’s health-care armour
If Kerala was taken by surprise last year by the first outbreak of Nipah virus infection, its recurrence this year strongly suggests that the virus is in circulation in fruit bats. After all, a study published on May 25 this year demonstrated that fruit bat was the source of the virus. In the absence of … Continue reading Nipah virus outbreak exposes the chinks in Kerala’s health-care armour
A rare confluence of four events led to flooding in Kerala, IIT Gandhinagar researchers say
A deadly combination of four factors caused extensive flooding in Kerala in 2018. The State received 53% above normal summer monsoon rainfall from May to August. This together with a few extreme rainfall events covering almost the entire State, six of the seven major reservoirs with over 90% storage before the extreme rainfall events, and catchment areas of major reservoirs … Continue reading A rare confluence of four events led to flooding in Kerala, IIT Gandhinagar researchers say
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