Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and eminent US political activist Noam Chomsky on Friday applauded the efforts of Kerala in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Both of them were speaking online while taking part in the debate series, ‘Kerala Dialogue’ organised by the Kerala government.
Sen said the main reason why Kerala has done a good job is because of the giant strides Kerala has made in public education and the health sector.
“Kerala can take pride in the way they have handled the Covid pandemic. But one doubts if the way the lockdown was imposed in the country was right. There was no discussion either with the political parties or with the public,” said Sen and added that Kerala over the years has proved many wrongs as today it has the highest per capital expenditure and has a high per capita income also.
Chomsky said that very few places handled the pandemic as Kerala did.
“Vietnam was one country and they managed to fight the pandemic without registering a single death and it should be remembered that they share 1,400 kms of border with China. South Korea also handled it well so did countries like New Zealand and Taiwan, but the US failed to handle it and the death toll is one lakh and is rising,” said Chomsky and added that new world order is possible in the post-Covid era.
Meanwhile, Kerala Health Minister K.K. Shailaja on Friday said that 150 more coronavirus cases were reported in the state, taking the total number of active cases to 1,846, while so far 2,006 have been cured.
This is the eighth successive day when the number of cases on a single day crossed 100.
“Among those who tested positive on Friday include 91 who came from abroad, 48 were those who came from within the country, 10 were local infectees and there was one health professional also,” said Shailaja.
She also said that there are 1,63,944 people who are under observation at their homes, or corona care centres, while 2,397 of them are hospitals.
The state has 114 hotspots now.
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