The central government has dispatched an experts’ team to 6 states, including Kerala which now comprises over 50% of the national daily cases and has recorded more than 22,000 new cases. 

The team headed by NCDC Director has been sent to work with the state health department, for urgent containment of the coronavirus and for implementation of strict measures of testing, tracking and surveillance.

The much-celebrated Kerala model now stands discredited as COVID cases in the state are zooming to new levels, but journalists like Ravish Kumar who insensitively called Lucknow as “Lashnow” during the second wave have conveniently started to ignore the alarming state of their “model” state.

The incompetent state government’s strategies to control the virus at a time when cases and positivity rate are on the decline across the country, are raising speculations about Kerala being the epicentre of India’s 3rd Covid Wave.

Paid media houses continue to either ignore the misery of the state or give excuses on behalf of the incompetent state government. Exposing the double standards of these houses can be left for another day, but their ignorance definitely points finger at the moral bankruptcy of these media houses. The reasons for the exponential rise in covid cases are simple and lie in the lackadaisical attitude of the state government and vote bank politics. 

The exploding cases come against the special relaxations provided by CM Pinarayi Vijayan for the BakrEid festival, even in the ‘D’ category areas where the infection rate was highest at 15%, with state reporting more than 10,000 cases per day.

However, Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has shamelessly put up a straight face, saying that the situation is under control, but the rising cases and reports speak for themselves.

Expert quotes by Hindustan Times said low testing rate, obsession with the rapid antigen test and over dependence on bureaucracy are among the reasons responsible for the resurgence in COVID cases.

Seven-day average of daily cases has also increased to 16,700 in Kerala compared to 11,000 cases between 20-27 of June. While test positivity rate was alarmingly high 12.35% as compared to the WHO which suggests a positivity rate of 5% for a pandemic to be considered under control.

However, the Supreme Court had taken this in account and said if the relaxations announced by the Kerala Government in lockdown norms for three days ahead of Bakr Eid celebration lead to any “untoward spread of COVID-19 disease” action will be taken against those responsible. Now that Kerala is contributing over 50% of daily cases, one only hopes that the SC will take stringent action against the state government.