Home quarantine will be ideal for Kerala in its fight against COVID-19 because of the State’s healthy social indices, according to senior Health officials. Most people returning from abroad or other States have a home and a support system that can offer them better personalised care.
Home quarantine will suit more people since Kerala’s social capital is robust, society is aware of the dangers involved, and is clued in on the kind of care that needs to be given for any communicable disease, says Mathews Numpelil, district programme manager, Ernakulam, National Health Mission.
Risk at care centre
The care given in institutional quarantine can never be personal, he says. Those involved in caring for the people at the centre will be exposed to the disease as well. Housekeeping, serving food, and managing waste generated in a 50-bed care home would involve at least 25-30 people, says Dr. Numpelil.
There are 22 corona care centres in Ernakulam alone. The people involved in the running of each centre can be reduced considerably if more returnees are taken care of at home, he adds. “The idea is to provide the best option for the returnees. If they can be taken care of at home, institutional quarantine does not make much sense. At home, the stress will be less too,” he says.
Danger at airports
At airports, asymptomatic returnees are grouped together before they are sent to different destinations. Officials receive them at their particular district and send them home. If this grouping and pooling of vehicles are avoided, fewer people would be exposed to the virus at the airport as well. People should be allowed to get their own vehicles or hire cabs available at airports which have barriers between the front and back seats.
While the State had been for home quarantine from initial stages itself, institutional quarantine was the Central policy. The latter policy could be better suited in northern States. But in Kerala, institutional care should only be the second best option, said Dr. Numpelil.
Institutional care is available to those who do not have a spare room and a bathroom for themselves or those with more people at home which makes room quarantine impossible.