UK magazine names Kerala Health minister KK Shailaja as World's 'top thinker' for COVID-19

In a moment of pride for India, KK Shailaja Kerala's Minister of Health and Social Welfare Minister has been named 'Top Thinker' for COVID-19 by a monthly British magazine Prospect. KK Shailaja was appreciated for her efforts in flattening the COVID-19 curve and low fatality rate in Kerala. New Zealand president Jacinda Ardern was listed at number two in the list of 50 people while Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum bagged the third spot. Nobel prize winner, Esther Duflo, writer and Booker prize winner Hilary Mantel and environmentalist David Attenborough were among the other popular names on the list of top thinkers. 

Check out the list shared by Prospect Magazine on Twitter. 

KK Shailaja: 'Top Thinker' for COVID-19

After naming KK Shalija as a 'Top Thinker', the British magazine said that KK Shailaja was the "right woman in the right place.”  Prospect magazine said in a statement, “So deft was her handling of a 2018 outbreak of the deadly Nipah disease that it was commemorated in a film, Virus. In 2020, she was the right woman in the right place. When Covid-19 was still ‘a China story’ in January, she not only accurately foresaw its inevitable arrival but also fully grasped the implications.”

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Further acknowledging KK Shailaja's efforts to curb COVID-19, the magazine said that she immediately implemented the WHO's drill of 'test, trace and isolate' in the state and also got a grip of the airport. She was successful in containing the first cases to arrive in India on Chinese flights. Various surveillance and quarantine makeshift structures were constructed in the state. Proper social distancing in all the places including the office meeting was ensured in Kerala. KK Shailaja also restricted herself to a zoom-only relationship with her grandchildren for their safety, reported the Prospect magazine.  Approximately 20,000 votes were cast in the public ballot to finalise the list of 'top thinkers' for COVID-19. 

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KK Shailaja is a teacher turned politician and represents Kuthuparamba constituency in Kerala. The Health Minister belongs to Kannur district and is popularly called 'Shailaja Teacher'. The top thinker was a speaker at the United Nations Public Service on June 23, to honour the frontline COVID-19 workers.

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