Planned campaign against Kerala, says state health minister, cites serosurvey data

The BJP has blamed "politics of appeasement" for the rise in COVID-19 cases in Kerala and criticised the state government for the relaxations in restrictions it had given for Eid-ul-Adha.

New Delhi: Kerala Health Minister Veena George hit back at the BJP over allegations of COVID-19 mismanagement saying that it is a planned campaign by the party and that the state was in a much better position than is being portrayed. The minister cited data from the recently conducted serosurvey by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) that showed that the state ranked lowest in terms of seroprevalence. “There's a planned campaign against Kerala. All experts in different states say that we have a very good defence mechanism. Seroprevalence study by ICMR shows that 44 per cent of people have antibodies in them, shows that our preventive mechanism was very good,” Veena George said.