Kerala has declared a ‘state calamity’ after three patients tested positive for coronavirus in the last five days.
The state health minister KK Shailaja announced the decision at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram following a meeting of the apex committee of state disaster management authority (SDMA), hours after the third positive case was confirmed in Kasargod.
She said that the decision was taken on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s recommendation to take adequate measures to control the epidemic effectively.
In the hysteria that surrounds the spread of the novel strain of Coronavirus, Netizens took to Twitter to ask a pertinent question ‘Why are all the confirmed cases of Coronavirus from Kerala alone ?’
While 3 cases are confirmed in #Kerala, I’m curious that no such info comes from other states. Is it that students/tourists returning back to India from other states are protected by some powerful vaccines? Or that only students from Kerala studied in Wuhan? Just a thought.
â Rajesh Abraham (@pendown) February 4, 2020
‘It is from Kerala that the maximum number of students go to Wuhan and hence we have to go forward very cautiously as the density of population here is high and so we have decided to set 28 days as the quarantine period,’ Shailaja opined.
State’s Efficient Surveillance System
The fact that the 3 confirmed cases have all been reported from Kerala goes to show efficiently that the state is running it’s surveillance system to contain the further spread of the disease. The reason there are no cases reported from other parts of the country could possibly be because of ‘ surveillance gaps’.
Kerala has a multi-tiered and seamlessly integrated system owing to the Nipah virus scare of 2018, which claimed 17 lives in the state.
From, immigration officials to police, panchayats and even local level health volunteers, everybody is trained to deal with a contagious threat.
One of the measures adopted by the state is issuing a ‘health card’.
As soon as the news of the coronavirus outbreak in China reached worldwide, all the international passengers arriving in the state were given a health card in which they had to furnish their travel details and their current health condition.
‘This card is screened at the first entry point by the health desk and the passenger has to get a clearance seal for proceeding to immigration. If the passenger is from China or Hong Kong or other infected regions, they are shifted to a transit room where their body temperature is immediately measured,” The Times of India quoted Dr Amar Fettle, state nodal officer (public emergency), currently in charge of the anti-nCoV effort in the state, as saying.
The well-organized system warranted that all those who reached the state from China in the last four weeks were identified and examined by medical practitioners on arrival.
Protocols for treatment and home isolation are in place to ensure a proper preventive mechanism.
A widespread awareness campaign has also been conducted for the general public.
Rumours or fake news regarding the epidemic have been immediately squashed.
Connectivity between the state’s five airports and district hospitals have been established, with ambulances and emergency response teams ready to act in a moment’s notice.
Passengers with suspicious symptoms like fever, cough or sore throat are immediately shifted to the nearest hospital, from where a message is passed to the district medical office. This office immediately contacts family members of the person and informs about the isolation of the passenger.
‘If travellers have no symptoms they are allowed to go to their house. But, they will continue to be under surveillance of health teams in the region,’ Dr Fettle added.
At present, 2239 travellers from virus-affected countries have been identified and placed under surveillance in the state.
The first patient confirmed for the infection has shown consistent improvement, state health officials said as they urged people travelling from China to report to the health department.
Of this, 2155 are under home quarantine and 84 admitted in select isolation facilities. A total of 140 samples have been sent for testing from the southern state, of which 46 are negative.
The test results of other travellers are awaited.
As of now, the death toll from the Coronavirus outbreak is 427 of the total 20,676 cases reported.
Also Read: Kerala Declares State Calamity After Three Test Positive For Coronavirus
