How dreaded is Corona ? –
Statistics can always give different views ! – According to John Hopkins
University – the total cases affected globally is 21,23,28,733 with 44,38,511
deaths. USA has 38038263 while India has
32449306. 6,29,641 have died in USA;
4,34,756 in India and 5,74,527 in Brazil. New cases per day in USA in recent 24 hours
is 2,60,656 in USA – while it is 25,072 in India ! If these nos. are real indicators – India can
certainly heave a sigh of relief.
It was June
2020 – Globe was reeling under the dreaded Corona virus, the first country that
handled it most efficiently was New Zealand as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
announced New Zealand moving to alert level 1 under which life returns
almost to normal. The stunning announcement was appreciated all over as Kiwi health
officials said that it has no active cases of Covid-19. The Pacific island
nation was among only a handful of countries that could emerge out from the
pandemic, which was at its height in USA, Latin American countries, Europe and
India. When that announcement came, it
was 17 days since a single case was reported in NZ. New Zealand enforced a strict lockdown for
nearly seven weeks, in which most businesses were shut and everyone except
essential workers had to stay at home. Experts stated that its isolated
location in the South Pacific also gave New Zealand vital time to see how
outbreaks spread in other countries. Just over 1,500 people contracted the
virus in New Zealand, and death toll was only 22.
Around that
time, one State in India basked in glory as many experts (!) hailed and
recommended adopting ‘Kerala model” !
- Kerala bagged United Nations award too for its
"outstanding contribution" towards the non-communicable
diseases-related sustainable development goals. The UN Interagency Task Force
(UNIATF) award on prevention and control
of non-communicable diseases was announced by World Health Organization
director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Health Minister K K Shailaja claimed
that the award was a recognition of the tireless service of Kerala in the
health sector. Ms Shailaja said in a statement. "We were able to control
the death rate during the COVID-19 period as we were able to focus on the
NCDs."
Life has changed
and some facts too have !!
Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern extended New Zealand's coronavirus lockdown on Monday, saying
the current outbreak has not peaked, as criticism mounts of her strategy to
eliminate COVID-19 amid the slow rollout of its vaccine programme. Ardern garnered global praise for stamping
out COVID-19 in New Zealand last year and the country was virus-free since
February. But an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant of the
coronavirus last week while few people have been vaccinated has called into
question the approach of snap lockdowns and border restrictions that have
curtailed the economy. Ardern extended the strict level 4 national lockdown by
three days until midnight on Aug. 27 while its largest city Auckland, the
epicentre of the current outbreak, will have restrictions in place at least
until Aug. 31. "We don't yet believe that we have reached the peak of this
outbreak, or necessarily the edge of it," Ardern said at a news conference
in the capital Wellington.
Are the numbers
so alarming, one tends to ask ? - New Zealand is bracing for
its biggest coronavirus outbreak yet as cases rise, the locations of interest
balloon to more than 400 sites, and the number of close contacts swells to more
than 15,700 people. Recently, the country recorded 41 new
positive cases (at one point of time, in a cluster
in my street, close to 190 people were affected and were living in a single
complex in Triplicane – Chennai, India), bringing the total number in
its outbreak to 148 – the majority of whom are Samoan, and linked to a
sub-cluster who assembled at the Assembly of God church in Mangere, Auckland
before the lockdown. A nationwide, level
4 lockdown – the highest setting – has been extended until at least the end of
the week, as the country battles to contain the outbreak of the Delta variant.
New Zealand Minister for
Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins made an unfortunate error when he advised
people to socially distance when they go outside to “spread their legs”. Of the
41 new cases, 38 are in Auckland, and 3 are in Wellington. Of the total 148
cases, 89 are epidemiologically linked to the Auckland cluster, with the
remaining still under investigation, but likely to be linked because they are
either household contacts or have been at a location of interest. Eight people
are in hospital with the virus, but no one is in intensive care. Genome
sequencing has linked the cluster to a returnee from Australia. It is not yet
known how the virus was transmitted from the traveller, who was in quarantine,
to the community, but a walkway and an atrium in the facility is being
investigated. All non-essential businesses are closed,
including bars, restaurants, cinemas and playgrounds. All indoor and outdoor
events are banned, while schools have switched to online learning. Essential
services remain open, including supermarkets and pharmacies. Health workers continue to find people who are
likely to have been in contact with a Covid-19 case and could have been
infectious before the lockdown started, Ardern said.
Ms Ardern, who made the
decision to suspend the house, said MPs coming from around the country risked
spreading the virus further. The move has riled opposition parties, who say the
suspension could allow the government to avoid scrutiny and criticism of its
lockdown policies and pandemic management.
Before concluding,
Ernakulam (Cochin in Kerala) on Sunday reported 1,101 cases. Test positivity
rate touched 12.44% on Sunday. The highest cases of the day were reported from Thrikkakara with 55, followed by
Nayarambalam 39 and Elamkunnapuzha 31. The number of patients undergoing treatment at
hospitals and houses touched 19,470 on Sunday. Of the total, 90 are in
Kalamassery medical college, 1,089 in private hospitals and the rest in first
and second-line treatment centres, houses and other government hospitals.
On Monday, the country
logged just 25,072 cases, taking the total past 3.24 crore. But a report in a leading newspaper
questioned it stating - a closer look at
the numbers suggests that this significant drop could rather be a
“manufactured” one on account of declining tests in Kerala. The country has now
reported less than 40,000 cases 10 days in a row and the fall in cases on
Monday meant a decline of about 19 per cent as compared to the previous day. Kerala
has been reporting the highest number of daily infections over nearly two
months now, but over the last two weeks, there has been a decline of 14 per
cent in seven-day average of daily cases. On Monday, for instance, Kerala reported just
10,402 new cases — down from 20,242
daily infections registered on the previous day.
Busting of the
Kerala model !- but those who hailed it so soundly are deaf and silent !
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
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