“Next two weeks are crucial in terms of our fight against COVID-19,’’ says P.B. Noohu, District Collector of Pathanamthitta that has become the epicentre of the second spell of the COVID-19 crisis in the State from where the first five cases were reported 10 days ago.
Mr. Noohu told The Hindu that Pathanamthitta had got a sizeable Non-Resident Indian (NRI) population spread across the globe. The wild spread of COVID-19 in Europe, China, America, and various other parts of the world was leading to an unprecedented influx of Indians, especially students and senior citizens, to their home country, from these affected areas. Kerala, particularly Pathanamthitta that has been identified as a key NRI pocket, had started receiving a good number of fellow citizens from different parts of the world over the past week.
“The success of our ongoing anti-COVID-19 drive is heavily dependent on ensuring absolute quarantine of all these people for a minimum period of 14 days, the incubation period of the virus, from their date of arrival,” he said.
Mr. Noohu said that all those who were returning from abroad should be treated as potential threat. Many people who have been tested positive for COVID-19 were those who came from the affected countries.
From other countries
The three Italian residents who returned to their home village of Aythala in Ranni and their two close relatives were the first five cases tested positive in the second spell of COVID-19 outbreak in the State. India’s first COVID-19 casualty was an elderly person who returned to his native place of Kalaburagi from Saudi Arabia. Another person, who came to Pune from Dubai, was the second casualty. Hence, any of these people could become a potential threat, once anyone of them was tested positive, he said.
“Our major concern is that, presently we have got a large crowd outside who came from various disease-hit countries. The success of our ongoing disease prevention drive is heavily dependent on how far we will be able to ensure effective quarantine of these people for the next 14 days,” he said.
Mr. Noohu sought wholehearted cooperation of all those who have returned from abroad and their contacts to strictly comply with the quarantine norms in the larger interests of society.
Ward-level committees
Mr. Noohu said that ward-level sanitation committees, comprising ASHA workers and a few police personnel headed by the local body member concerned, had been constituted in all 920 panchayat-municipal wards in the district to ensure effective quarantine of all those placed under quarantine at homes.
He said the community as a whole, including those who had been quarantined, had got a definite role to play in making the ongoing anti-COVID-19 drive a big success, he said.
Call centre
Mr. Noohu said the call centre opened at the Collectorate interacted with the quarantined people over phone, ensuring their well-being and welfare on a daily basis.
A 60-member team, comprising engineering students, National Health Mission volunteers, and doctors, is running the call centre.
