Karnataka fares better than high-prevalence states in COVID-19 fight
BENGALURU: As Karnataka is preparing to open all economic activities once the Lockdown 4.0 ends on Sunday, the number of cases continues to increase sharply. But Karnataka still seems to have managed the fight against the pandemic much better than most Southern states and other states reporting a high number of cases and mortality rates.
But experts cautioned that the government should take note of a possible community spread as a large number of migrants are returning from other states and are being placed under home quarantine, especially in villages.
Experts pointed out that most metro cities still remain hotspots across the country. "Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad are all financial and industrial hubs. Bengaluru too is similar, but has managed to keep the virus burden low because of early mitigation and containment strategies," explained Dr Giridhara Babu, Senior Epidemiologist, Indian Institute of Public Health. As per data analysed last week, Karnataka has 38 cases per million, lower than the national average of 70, he said.
Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said the state is conducting 4,124 tests per million, which is among the highest in the country. The positivity rate of 1 per cent is better than Kerala’s 2 per cent; the average daily growth rate is 5.8 per cent, while it is 10.2 per cent for the country, and the mortality rate is 1.72 per cent as against the all- Indian figure of 5 per cent, he added.
Karnataka, being a tech hub, used technology extensively and also adopted suggestions made by public health experts quickly.
"Apart from technology, high testing, transparency, community involvement, seamless coordination across departments, new models like setting up of fever clinics, dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, surveillance system for ILI/SARI cases, collecting data from private pharmacies on patients buying medicines for ILI/SARI and critical care support units doing erounds of all ICUs in the state are some of our best moves which helped keep the numbers low but also bring down fatality rate from 4-plus to 1.6 now," explained Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey.
The state government was quick to adapt the Kerala model of contact tracing, but went one up using technology-based surveillance to trace contacts and ensure strict quarantine. Also, Karnataka banned the entry of foreign travellers in January, much earlier than Maharashtra and Delhi.
"On the ground, the Health Department- led surveillance system took on a community-based character with the involvement of elected representatives of local governments, particularly village panchayats. ASHA workers and citizens helped. The police too actively participated," he said.
The state anticipated an extreme scenario. It sought and got the support of private hospitals. Large spaces that could safely quarantine people, including public and private hospitals, and stadiums, too were mapped. However, like many other states, Karnataka too failed to anticipate the influx of migrants and a spurt in cases.
Karnataka had it all under control till migrants started pouring in. "It was a question of the lives of the poor and the government had failed to address their problems from the beginning. The poor had travelled far to escape abject poverty and to live a decent life. But with coronavirus robbing them of all that, they have started coming back," said an expert.
“Many hotspots are emerging because of migrants and the state needs to keep a close watch, as some of these returnees may be asymptomatic,” said bioethics researcher Anant Bhan. Many epidemiologists claimed community transmission has occurred, but the government is not accepting it.
"More testing and stricter containment measures are needed. The administration needs to focus on districts where migration will increase, protect the elderly and patients with comorbidities," said Dr G Gururaj, Dean, Neuro sciences and senior Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Nimhans.