Expats set to return, Kerala on war footing again

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The health department has made elaborate arrangements to screen Keralites returning to the state from Thursday.
Help desks have been set up at airports to screen them while special announcements will be made inside the flights about steps they need to take once they land. The thermal screening for passengers will be conducted on the aerobridge itself and those with temperature will be shifted to isolation rooms from there itself.
The passengers will have to hand over their self-declaration forms given inside the flight at the help desks. Each help desk will have a doctor, nurse and a field staff. The doctor will screen passengers at the help desk.
Those showing no symptoms will be sent to the guiding stations and their baggage will be disinfected. From there, they will be sent to the quarantine centre in vehicles arranged by the district administration. Those showing symptoms will be shifted to ambulances from the isolation rooms and to the nearby Covid-19 hospital.
The department has created four health application mobile apps for the four airports to record details of passengers arriving there. This is expected to help health workers in screening, monitoring and tracking the passengers.
For accommodating those with symptoms, the department has kept 207 hospitals ready across the state. It has also enlisted 125 private hospitals for use in a later stage. As many as 11,084 isolation beds and 1,679 ICU beds have been kept ready for those arriving in the first seven days.
All medical college hospitals, general hospitals and district hospitals will be converted into Covid-19 hospitals depending upon the situation.
PWD facilities ready: Min
The public works department has also arranged quarantine facilities in various districts. Minister G Sudhakaran said 1,63,303 beds were ready in properties owned by the department across the state. The list of rooms has been handed over to the respective district collectors, he said.
Meanwhile, the police department has made elaborate arrangements in each airports. DIG-level officers will be heading the security at the airports --Sanjay Kumar Garud at Thiruvananthapuram, Mahesh Kumar Kaliraj at Nedumbassery, S Surendran at Karipur and K Sethuraman at Kannur airports. The Ernakulam city police commissioner will be in charge of security at Kochi port.