Kerala is entering a new phase of COVID-19 containment as it grapples with the huge influx of non-resident Keralites from places where disease transmission is intense and the situation can alter the dynamics of the epidemic in the State, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said here on Tuesday.
About 70% of the current crop of cases in the State are those imported from other parts of the country or abroad while the rest are a result of local transmission through contact with known or unknown sources of infection. Ever since the evacuation of expatriates in the Gulf began on May 7, seven persons who landed by flights have been found to be SARS-CoV-2 positive. All co-passengers of these patients in those flights are under the Health Department’s special surveillance. Mr. Vijayan said he had requested the Centre to insist that those boarding the flights to India were put through antibody testing.
Mr. Vijayan tasked the police with ensuring that persons in isolation at home did not jump quarantine. Home quarantine meant ‘room quarantine’. Given the continuing influx of Keralites from epidemic hotspots in the country and abroad, the State anticipates containment to be an uphill task now and the challenges of managing a huge case numbers can likely overwhelm the system.
The government would put persons who enter Kerala without the requisite pass in mandatory institutional quarantine for 14 days. The police have to ensure that persons who enter Kerala through rail, road, sea and air routes follow quarantine orders. They should isolate persons who jump home quarantine in government facilities. Special officers would monitor persons arriving at railway stations and ensure they head straight home and enter into isolation.
On Tuesday, five new COVID-19 cases were reported in the State, four of whom had come from the Gulf and one from Chennai. Three of these cases were located at Malappuram and one each at Pathanamthitta and Kottayam. The State’s total case number so far is 524. However, 489 have recovered from the disease.
32 patients now
There are 32 COVID-19 patients in the State at present and 23 of them have contracted the disease from outside the State. While 11 persons returned from the Gulf recently, six came from Chennai, four from Maharashtra, and two from Nizamuddin in New Delhi.
Of the nine cases who contracted the disease through local transmission, six are in Wayanad.
All six are believed to have contracted the disease from a truck driver who has been to Chennai. In various districts, 31,616 people are under surveillance, of whom 31,143 are in home quarantine and 473 in hospitals.