Ward-level committees to monitor returnees to Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As part of the curtailing the third phase of Covid-19 pandemic, the city will now set up regional monitoring committees to ensure efficient home quarantine of suspected cases and observe people returning from outside the country and other states. A ward-level committee led by the ward members will also be formed. The junior health inspectors of the corporation will be the convenors of the ward-level committees. 

The regional monitoring committees will function under the ward-level committee. It will have representatives of the residents’ associations, political parties, village officer, ASHA workers, Kudumbashree, police, health workers, NCC, Students Police Cadets (SPC) and the corporation staff. These committees will be formed by including the 2,500 trained volunteers working with the corporation. Each regional monitoring committee will be in charge of 200 houses. They will hold the first meeting by May 20. The ward-level committees will alert the help desk at the corporation main office if an expatriate or someone living in another state returns home. 

The returnees will be observed through the mobile application of the corporation - COME. “Those who break quarantine will have to face legal action. Stickers will be placed outside the houses where people are under quarantine. The various standing committee chairpersons and ward councillors will be in charge of the institutional quarantine centres in the city limits,” said Mayor K Sreekumar.  

The information collected through the app will be handed over to the District Medical Officer (DMO) and the district administration. To boost the functioning of this scheme, a zonal level meeting of councillors will be held as soon as possible The decision to constitute these committees were made at a meeting held at the corporation office. Minister Kadakampally Surendran and MLA V K Prashanth were present at the meeting.