Time for Kerala to be more aggressive
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan sounded a warning during his daily Covid-season briefing on Wednesday when he said the state is hurtling towards a critical phase in its battle against the virus. The warning is both accurate and timely, coming when there is a considerable increase in infections. Health Minister K K Shailaja too struck a similar note when she said last week that the third phase of the Covid-19 spread is expected to be more intense. There is a need to be extra vigilant in the coming days. But is the state prepared to deal with a rapid spike in infections? What is the government doing to ensure that the situation doesn’t get out of control? The answers aren’t very comforting.
As the chief minister himself put it, the government’s strategy seems to be largely based on its trust in people’s awareness about the pandemic. It’s reasonable to assume that people are now aware of the threat and the precautions to be taken. But that alone may not be enough. The state has so far been proactive in dealing with the threat and this is no time to slacken the intensity. As most of the fresh cases are among the returnees, it should look at adopting an even more aggressive screening-testing-quarantine mechanism. The fact that people with confirmed infections were flown in from the Gulf and some of the returnees managed to sneak in by hiding information on their medical condition should have made the government rethink its strategy.
For one, it’s time the government increased testing and implemented reverse quarantine to protect its vulnerable sections. It recently told the Kerala High Court that 1.35 lakh rooms with attached toilets are available to quarantine the returnees. If so, why are most of the returnees sent into home quarantine? While some other states have gone for mandatory institutional quarantine and testing as a way to handle the returnees, Kerala has stubbornly refused to adopt this strategy. It’s good to know that the government is well aware of the developing situation, but a lack of clarity on its strategy to deal with it is worrying.