Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the report that two persons who had arrived from the Gulf on Thursday tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 is worrying.
He said health workers had checked them before boarding the flight to Kerala. The infection could go undetected and some medicines might even mask it. Many aspects of the pandemic were still unknown. It had scythed through the populations of developed nations. Kerala had mostly been insulated from the worst of its ravages. A minor let-down in guard could cause the virus to spread in the community rapidly.
He said the government was walking a tightrope. It had to bring back Keralites from pandemic regions without inadvertently importing the disease. The arrival of international flights carrying Non-Resident Keralites from pandemic hotspots in the Gulf was an impelling factor.
The COVID-19 situation in neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and distant Maharashtra, which have a sizeable non-resident Keralite population aspiring to return home, had compelled the government to reinforce the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions further.
The government would not allow any person to enter the State without the requisite pass issued by the Department of Non-Resident Keralite Affairs (NoRKA) and the authorities at the point of commencement of their journey to the State. Arrivals with flu symptoms would go into institutional quarantine for 14 days. Infected persons would be hospitalised. Those with no indication of the disease should isolate themselves at home and answer house calls by health workers.
