As the State prepares to battle the next stage of COVID-19 when the disease transmission pattern could change drastically with the homecoming of lakhs of Non-Resident Indians(NRIs), the focus of disease containment strategy should be on giving special care and attention to protecting the elderly and those with chronic diseases.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, briefing media here on Saturday, said to face the next stage of disease transmission, the health system would have to function in a decentralised manner and fully engage the capacity of the private health sector at the grassroots.
He said it was society’s responsibility to ensure that senior citizens and those with chronic diseases were protected. The elderly and the sick should be made to understand their vulnerability and asked to stay at home.
Mr. Vijayan said monitoring committees were being set up to ensure the welfare of this vulnerable group. They would keep an eye on the NRIs who would be put in home quarantine when they returned to ensure that norms were not violated. Mr. Vijayan said that telemedicine facilities and home visits with the help of Indian Medical Association (IMA) and mobile clinics could be organised through primary health centres in every locality. The district medical officer will be in charge of preparing the details of the plan.
Two new COVID-19 case
Wayanad district reported a lone case on Saturday after a gap of nearly a month, taking the State health administration totally by surprise. Kannur also reported a case, taking the State’s tally to 499. The case in Wayanad is that of a person who had travelled from Chennai, while the one in Kannur is that of a person who had contracted the disease through contact.
Eight persons got on the recovery list, taking the number of recovery to 400. Only 96 persons are currently undergoing treatment in hospitals. The number of those under surveillance is 21,894, of whom, 410 are in isolation in hospitals and the rest, in home quarantine. The State has tested 31,183 samples so far, of which 30,358 have returned a negative result. Of the 2,093 samples which were collected from priority groups as part of sentinel surveillance studies, 1,234 gave a negative result.
