As India stumbles, one state, Kerala, charts its own Covid course

24th May 2021
As India stumbles, one state, Kerala, charts its own Covid course
A data-collection room in the district of Ernakulam that monitors information such as number of hospital beds, ventilators, ambulances, along with the level of oxygen supplies.

Kerala uses tracking of patients and supplies, a network of health care workers and coronavirus “war rooms” to succeed where the national government has fallen short.
May 23 2021: When India’s second coronavirus wave slammed the country last month, leaving many cities without enough doctors, nurses, hospital beds or lifesaving oxygen to cope, Sajeev V.B. got the help he needed.
Local health workers quarantined Mr. Sajeev, a 52-year-old mechanic, at home and connected him with a doctor over the phone. When he grew sicker, they mustered an ambulance that took him to a public hospital with an available bed. Oxygen was plentiful. He left 12 days later and was not billed for his treatment.
“I have no clue how the system works,” Mr. Sajeev said. “All that I did was to inform my local health worker when I tested positive. They took over everything from that point.”
This is the lead of a story in New York Times today on how Kerala  succeeded while other Indian states -- and the Centre-- floundered in addressing the Covid Challenge.
Full story by Shalini Venugopal Bhagat  here