Despite being diabetic capital, densely populated, Kerala keeping COVID-19 mortality low

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], October 11 : Despite being the diabetic capital of India and demographic vulnerability of population density, Kerala with its efficient health system was able to keep the COVID-19 mortality rate low, said Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja.
Speaking to ANI, Kerala Health Minister said, "It is incorrect to say that cases are very high in Kerala. The cases are definitely rising. But the mortality rate is not as high as other states. The ultimate aim is to reduce the mortality rate."
"We could contain cases when there was lockdown. But now measures are eased. We can't blame govt for easing restrictions because people need to work and earn or else they'll starve to death. But people need to follow all precautions," she added.
Health Minister said that people coming out in large numbers during Kerala' festival Onam and the opposition protests violating COVID-19 protocol contributed to the surge in the cases in the last two months.
"We requested everyone to celebrate Onam at their place and not to move outside. Most of the people abided by the guidelines but many people moved out in bulk. After Onam, we witnessed a surge in the number of cases. Another reason was the protests held by political parties. In August and September the cases in Kerala increased," said Shailaja.
Shailaja asserted that all the other states are struggling to reduce the mortality rate and flattening the cure but Kerala is also trying hard to achieve it.
"Cases there are shooting and even the mortality rate is rising but in Kerala, the mortality rate never raised to that limit. We are struggling hard to reduce the mortality rate," she added.
She said that the high number of ex-pat population of Kerala also was the reason for the increase in COVID-19 cases, as after the lockdown was lifted, people did travel from one place to another.
"Before May 3, Kerala contained the spread of COVID-19 in a very good manner and the whole world appreciated us. Before March 24 more than one lakh people entered into Kerala from other countries. Out of them, over 400 people tested positive before March 24. Now that the lockdown has lifted we can improve our health care system to tackle the problem," she added.
At that time, Kerala was able to flatten the curve to zero level, the Health Minister claimed.
"When the Central government decided to lift the lockdown, we expressed our fear to the society that the graph of cases will shoot. We cannot blame the Centre for doing so because they should save the lives and livelihood at the same time," she added.
Most of the people obeyed the guidelines imposed by the State Government, said Shailaja while expressing gratitude to the people of Kerala.
"When Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra had high test positivity rate, Kerala had the lowest test positivity rate. Now because of the surge in the number of cases our test positivity rate has also increased but it is still below 8 per cent. Our aim is to reduce the test positivity rate below 2 per cent," she added.
The State Health Minister further added that there are vulnerabilities faced by all states amid pandemic including demographic vulnerabilities and socio-economic.
"We could overcome the socio-economic vulnerabilities in Kerala because we are in the forefront in poverty alleviation, literacy and human development index. But despite facing demographic vulnerabilities Kerala reduced the mortality rate to 0.36 per cent. On the other hand, Kerala is known as the diabetic capital of India and people do not do any physical exercise here. Due to these vulnerabilities, the mortality rate could have been higher here but we were able to bring it down," she added.