Kerala’s Health and Social Welfare Minister KK Shailaja has been named by a British magazine as the ‘top world thinker’ among 50 such public figures from across the globe.

The voters of ‘Prospect’ ranked the Indian minister even ahead of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for her efforts towards containing the spread of COVID-19.

Tens of thousands of people voted in our world’s top 50 thinkers 2020 poll. The votes have been counted and the results are in…https://t.co/PrKThaTX1G

— Prospect Magazine (@prospect_uk) September 2, 2020

Throwing light on the selection procedure, the magazine said mentioned that it was an ‘all-new list for the COVID-19 age since the mood called for thinking of a different sort – less chin-stroking, more hands-on’. It further added that 20,000 votes were cast and counted.

‘So deft was her handling of a 2018 outbreak of the deadly Nipah disease that it was commemorated in a film, Virus. In 2020, she was the right woman in the right place. When Covid-19 was still ‘a China story’ in January, she not only accurately foresaw its inevitable arrival, but also fully grasped the implications,’ the magazine wrote about the Kerala Health Minister.

It further added that she followed and rigorously implemented the World Health Organisation’s guidelines on ‘test, trace and isolate’ in the state and bought crucial time by getting a grip or the airports which were the source of first cases arriving on Chinese flights.

‘The public messages have been consistent, and Shailaja follows them to the letter, with social distancing in all official meetings (which can go on until 10 pm) and restricting herself to a Zoom-only relationship with her grandchildren,’ it added.

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