A few months ago, many in the country were told by sections of media that Kerala was emerging a winner, in fact a superb winner, in the fight against COVID-19. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Health Minister Shailaja Teacher came to be hailed by English-language journalists across the country as the best leaders in the country (no exaggeration, this)!

In the subsequent months, many started realizing that the so-called Kerala Model was a hoax. Prof. Shamika Ravi has compared the coronavirus stats of Kerala with that of Bihar, whose population is almost three times that of Kerala.

"Kerala has the highest growth rate of active cases in India. Bihar has seen a steady decline for 6 weeks. Daily cases of Kerala stand at about 7000, while that of Bihar is about 1500," Prof. Ravi said on October 2.

She compares the key stats between KL (Kerala) and BR (Bihar):

Total cases: 2,04,242 (KL) & 1,84,276 (BR)
Recovered: 1,31,047 (64.2%) & 1,70,867 (92.7%)
Active: 72,423 (35.5%) & 12,503 (6.8%)
Deaths: 772 (0.4%) & 906 (0.5%)

Testing records: KL & BR

Total tests: 2,985,534 & 7,386,521
Test Positivity Rate: 6.84% & 2.49%

The above stats prove that the Kerala government undeservedly received lots of glories because there was a media scam being played out all the way.