The Indian State That Went From Covid Hero To Hotbed

Once hailed for its public health response, Kerala is now contributing well over half the country’s daily new infections

- Arpan Rai

When Covid-19 infections spread across India during the first wave, the southern Indian state of Kerala that boasts a 100 percent literacy rate led the fight against the virus and laid down the road map for the rest of the country.

Kerala saw Covid-19 cases in single digits in April 2020, rising to not more than 200 per day till July that year and KK Shailja, its former health minister, featured on magazine covers and glossy newspaper spreads as the hero destined to steer the state towards health and normalcy.

Fast forward to exactly a year later, the coastal state accounted for almost 40,000 cases within a span of just 24 hours in May, at the time the deadly Delta-driven second wave was sweeping India.

Cases cooled down around June and plateaued further in July across the country, but in Kerala the virus had entered almost every house. It appeared that once a success story, Kerala had become the most active-blinking red state with tens of thousands of infections.

From April till 27 September this year, Kerala recorded 3,514,205 cases in a prolonged wave and most likely the highest any state has seen this year, second only to the western state of Maharashtra, home to India’s financial capital Mumbai. On some days in this period, Kerala accounted for as much as 70 per cent of the nation’s daily infections.

So what went wrong?

Experts say it’s a combination of the ideal conditions a virulent contagion like Covid-19 needs to thrive in: a majorly vulnerable population, population density, the letting down of guard, lockdown fatigue, and a statewide festival that brought thousands of revellers out onto the streets.