In February 2020, Kerala had the only 3 known cases of Covid-19 in India, all of them were medical students who had returned from Wuhan, China. These three patients were successfully treated and discharged successfully after the isolation ward revealed their results as negative.
Since then Kerala had been able to contain the spread of the virus via proactive protocols that tell the public to conduct specific sanitation and precautionary measures. These protocols were successful due to their non-alarming nature. They have also taken measures to run focussed awareness campaigns and to warn those spreading rumours.
They have begun conducting preventative protocols at the state level. They include:
1. Airport Screening for passengers arriving from abroad.
All the passengers arriving from abroad would be given a health card each in which they would enlist the place they have travelled to and their health condition. There would be special assigned desks where they would get their details checked and stamped before arriving at immigration.
For the passengers arriving from China, Hong Kong or other Coronavirus hotspots, the protocol is to shift them to a different transit room and measure their temperature.
2. Intervention by public
After the detection of the first case of the novel coronavirus, all the panchayat-level bodies were issued a directive on infection control and house isolation protocols. In this circular, all the self-government departments were directed to prepare a list of people who were coming from places affected by the virus.
3. Strict infection protocols.
Private medical institutions, labs and consulting centres have been asked to adhere to strict consulting protocols. Approximate 215 mental health teams have reached out to 2600 people in home quarantine to reduce anxiety and to counsel family members and other neighbourhood people.
