The Health Department has launched an all-out effort to backtrack and trace all persons who might have come into contact with a family based in Pathanamthitta that had returned from Italy and found to be COVID-19 positive on Saturday.
Addressing mediapersons here on Monday, Health Minister K.K. Shylaja said meticulous contact-tracing and isolation were perhaps the only way one could attempt to limit or minimise the spread of the infection in the community.
On Monday, the Pathanamthitta district health administration managed to add another 120 people to the primary contacts list of the family, taking the total number of primary contacts to 270. As on Monday, apart from the five persons who tested COVID-19 positive at Pathanamthitta, a child too tested positive for the disease at Ernakulam. The condition of all six were stable and satisfactory, she said.
The State on Monday put 1,116 persons under surveillance, of whom 149 were in isolation wards in hospitals.
In anticipation of more people going under isolation, additional facilities were being readied at hospitals.
The department was also strengthening community surveillance, by roping in local bodies and ward-level health and sanitation committees, to ensure heightened vigil whenever people from abroad take up residence in a locality. In the urban areas, corporation councillors have been tasked to talk to representatives of residents’ associations and initiate similar monitoring.
More testing facilities
The State had sought and obtained permission from the National Institute of Virology to open SARS- CoV-2 testing facilities at the government medical colleges in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.
At a meeting called by the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Secretary, the State had appealed that local airport authorities be delegated discretionary powers to accommodate requests from the District Collector or the State health authorities, rather than wait for the consent of the airports authority, Ms. Shylaja said.
Against the backdrop of COVID-19, the Health Department decided to take action under the Travancore Cochin Public Health Act against any person, who by their non-disclosure of travel details and non-adherence to health advisories, might endanger the health of public.
