Udupi gearing up to receive up to 20,000 people on government cue

UDUPI: District administration is fully geared up to quarantine residents of the district who are expected to come from other districts, state and even abroad. Infrastructure including hostels of private educational institutions will be utilised for the purpose and managements have been instructed to hand over the same, G Jagadeesha, deputy commissioner, said, adding protecting people of the district from external Covid-19 cases is a challenging task.
Heads of government and private hostels and hostels of educational institutions must hand over their facilities to the district administration without any delay and must carry out any minor repairs that may be needed forthwith. These facilities will be completely sanitised as per health department norms once the quarantine process is completed and handed back to the institutions or government departments owning them, Jagadeesha said.
As things stands, around 6000 people have registered to enter the district and will be allowed to enter once the state government permits the same. They will first be checked at the district border and taken to the respective quarantine centres at the taluk under police escort. If anyone is found symptomatic, they will be shifted to the designated hospital, he said. Those wanting to be quarantined in hospitals will be allowed to do so at own cost, he noted.
Those opting for government quarantine will be provided with free food. For those coming from abroad, single room facility for quarantine has been arranged. The administration overall expects around 20000 people to return to the district, Jagadeesha said. The thrust of the entire exercise is to ensure that the 13-lakh residents of the district are not put at risk due to a fraction of this numbers being allowed to return to their home district, DC said.