Kerala suspends passes for Malayalis from other states

Thiruvananthapuram: The government has temporarily put on hold issuing the entry passes to people from other states as those who had arrived from red-zone districts who entered the state since Monday morning mixed with the population in the state, throwing up a possibility of spreading infection.
Top government sources said over 7,800 people who have returned to the state from other states in three days are now being tracked and asked to go into institutional quarantine. “Many of them have come from red-zone districts of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. We are in the process of finding all of them and asking them to go on institutional quarantine,” sources said. Of those who have returned, about 5,000 have come from Tamil Nadu and around 2,500 are from Karnataka.
The sources said since the government has decided to ask all those returning from other states to go on quarantine, the number of those who are seeking the pass to return to the state has drastically dropped. “All of them are returning to the state to go back to their homes. But once we decided to ask them to go on institutional quarantine, they are now hesitating to seek pass,” the sources added.
The district collectors are now in the process of identifying the persons who have returned from the 130 red-zone districts, and asking them to go on an institutional quarantine for seven days. After the seventh day, they would be asked to undertake a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test, and if found positive, they would be hospitalised.
The state had opened up six interstate border checkposts for the entry of Keralites from other states since Monday. They are Inchivila in Thiruvananthapuram, Aryankavu in Kollam, Kumili in Idukki, Walayar in Palakkad, Muthanga in Wayanad and Manjeswaram in Kasaragod. More than 2 lakh Keralites from other states had registered online to return to the state. As many as 43,000 passes have been issued by the state.
Even though the state has decided to welcome Keralites from other states, they are allowed to enter the state only if they have been allotted pass from the originating state as well. The nodal officers in charge of various states and the Covid-19 war room have been receiving calls that they have already registered in states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and yet they are not issued passes.