Home care for asymptomatic patients in Thiruvananthapuram

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state on Thursday reported 506 Covid-19 cases while steps have been initiated for home quarantine of asymptomatic Covid-19 patients in Thiruvananthapuram. Of the new cases, 431 are contact cases, including 37 health workers and 29 cases with unknown source of infection.
Two more Covid deaths --Alikoya (77) of Kozhikode and Beepathu (65) of Ernakulam -- were reported on the day, taking the total number of deaths in the state to 71, including the Mahe native who died in Kannur in April. The health department had released only the data till 12 noon on the day due to ICMR portal integration.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said it had been decided to send the asymptomatic Covid-postive health workers for home care first in the state.
Three-layer monitoring
We will have to go for home care for all asymptomatic patients gradually. A three-layer monitoring mechanism will be in place once it starts. Junior public health nurses, ASHA workers and volunteers will be visiting houses; a telemonitoring will also be done,” he said.
Vijayan said both the ICMR and the state-level expert committee had recommended home care for the asymptomatic. “It will be allowed provided there is facility for maintaining room quarantine and a person available at home to monitor the patient. The local bodies will ensure the facilities,” he said. The CM said the state could contain the viral spread when compared to other states. Till May 3, the state had 496 cases and only 165 of them were infected through contact. “The case load, however, went up once the state borders were opened and flights started coming. In the third phase after May 4, we have reported 21,298 cases, of which 12,199 are contact cases,” he said.
As many as 33 persons tested positive on Thursday came from abroad and 40 from other states. The districtwise tally is as follows: Thrissur 83 (44 contact cases), Thiruvananthapuram 70 (60), Pathanamthitta 59 (50), Alappuzha 55 (39), Kozhikode 42 (41), Kannur 39 (6), Ernakulam 34 (28), Malappuram 32 (30), Kottayam 29 (28), Kasaragod 28 (24), Kollam 22 (15), Idukki 6 (6), Palakkad 4 (2) and Wayanad 3 (2).
The infected health workers are in Kannur (24), Thiruvananthapuram (9), Ernakulam (2) and Pathanamthitta and Thrissur (1 each). Eight Kerala Solvent Extractions Ltd employees and seven KLF employees in Thrissur and three Defence Security Corps personnel in Kannur were also infected.
As many as 794 patients recovered from the infection on Thursday. The number of active cases in the state is 10,056 while 1,44,636 persons are under surveillance, of whom 1,34,690 are under home/institutional quarantine and 9,946 admitted to hospitals. As many as 1,117 persons were admitted to the hospital on Thursday.
In last 24 hours, 21,533 samples were tested. A total of 7,53,485 samples have been sent for tests so far, of which results of 5,529 samples are pending. As part of sentinel surveillance, 1,21,115 samples were collected from high-risk groups and the results of 2,228 samples are awaited. There are 495 hotspots in the state now, with 24 places included and another 16 excluded from the list on the day.