Kerala, on Tuesday, June 23, was one among those recognised and honoured for its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic by the United Nations on its Public Service Day.
The celebration was observed on a virtual platform and Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja was the only speaker from the country to speak about the strategies adopted by the state to contain and curb the transmission of COVID-19.
The United Nation Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other top UN dignitaries including President of the General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, Minister of Interior and Safety, Republic of Korea Chin Young, World Health Organisation Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; President of Ethiopia Sahle-Work Zewde and senior officers of the UN participated in the event to honour and applaud the global leaders, including Shailaja, for effectively tackling COVID-19.
The health minister spoke on how the state’s experience of combating the Nipah virus outbreak and the floods helped in gearing up for the eventualities and to fight the spread of novel coronavirus in Kerala in a timely manner.
‘Right from the time when COVID cases got reported in Wuhan, Kerala got into the track of the WHO and followed every standard operating protocol and international norms and hence, we have been able to keep the contact spread rate to below 12.5 per cent and the mortality rate to 0.6 per cent,’ she said.
According to her, the decentralised public health delivery systems in the state helped in activating surveillance and monitoring network that aided in getting a grip over the transmission of the infection.
Additionally, the state followed three strategies to tackle the pandemic which included ‘Trace, Quarantine, Test, Isolate and Treat’, ‘Break the Chain’ and ‘Reverse Quarantine.’
