What was right about Kerala’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Jaideep Menon, P S Rakesh, Denny John, Rajesh Thachathodiyl, Amitava Banerjee
Abstract
### Summary box COVID-19 was declared as a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’ by WHO on 30 January 2020.1 As on 29 June 2020, the disease has affected more than 10 million individuals, spread to all countries of the world and has led to death of 0.5 million.2 In India the count of those affected by COVID-19 has crossed 5.4 million with a death toll of 16 487, with Maharashtra reporting the highest number of infections (0.16 million cases) followed by Delhi (83 077), Tamil Nadu (82 275) and Gujarat (31 397), as on 29 June 2020.3 In India, Kerala was the first state affected by COVID-19, and the first coronavirus case was confirmed in Thrissur district on 30 January 2020. By early March the state soon had the highest number of active cases in India mainly due to a huge number of cases imported from other countries and states. Using the five components of trace, quarantine, test, isolate and …