Door-to-door surveillance begins today

Thiruvananthapuram: Home-based, door-to-door field-level surveillance will kickstart in the district from Monday as part of ensuring strict home quarantine. A total of 186 people are under quarantine in hospitals and 422 people have been referred to home quarantine in the district.
In each panchayat where people have been home quarantined, 10-15 field level workers will be deployed. Besides, the service of Janamaithri police will also ensure that people on quarantine remain in houses and do not mingle with other people including those in their family.
A 10-member volunteer force will be constituted in each ward of local bodies. Training will be given to these volunteers and will be completed in two days. Masks and sanitizers will be provided to members of the field surveillance team.
Surveillance and monitoring of people under home quarantine are being intensified in the district in the wake of lapses being reported in home quarantine in the cases which were positive for Covid-19.
Collector K Gopalakrishnan said that the patient who came from Britain to the city compromised on home quarantine.
He said that the norms for home quarantine have to be complied with. Although the patient didn’t come out of the house, he got in close proximity to his family members like his wife, his wife’s sister, brother-in-law and father-in-law. They shared the same phone, ate together and shared common areas which were not advisable, the collector said.
The district collector also said that within the family, usage of common areas shall be restricted and that the person under observation has to be housed in a separate room. It was reported that the cases in which people were tested positive never called the control room except for one patient. Instead, they either took an auto or came in their own vehicle to the hospital for giving samples.
The home-based field surveillance is being followed from Monday in the wake of the collector directing all those who have recently returned from foreign countries to be under home quarantine for 28 days.
The visits will be done from 8am to 2pm and daily reports will be compiled by 3pm. Proper awareness will be given to family members to ensure that the person under observation is strictly quarantined.