On the 100th day of the coronavirus pandemic which fell on Friday, Kerala could look back with a sense of satisfaction to the path it covered during the journey to freedom from the disease. “The coronavirus curve has been flattened in the State. The State had to face two waves of attack since January 30, when the first case was reported. We have successfully encountered and neutralized the pandemic,” said Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister on Friday while addressing the media.
“Kerala has shown great courage and resolve. Fought two waves and is ready if there is another wave. Years from now, we should be able to look back and take pride in how we responded to this,” Vijayan said in a social media posting on Friday. Eight of the 14 districts in Kerala have been declared as coronavirus free by Thursday evening.
Even as the State has effectively controlled the spread of the contagious disease with a surveillance mechanism worth emulating by other States, the Government of Kerala is already into another action, receiving the expatriates from West Asian countries as part of the Vande Bharat Mission. As part of evacuating the Keralaites who were held up in Gulf countries, Air India began its mission to bring back all those who have registered their names with the ministry of external affairs.
Late Thursday night two aircraft with 363 passengers on board landed at Kochi and Kozhikode airports. All passengers are being accommodated at the quarantine homes arranged by the State Government for a period of seven days after which those who are diagnosed free of coronavirus would be allowed to go home while those who test positive would be hospitalized.
V Muraleedharan, minister of state for external affairs, said that all expatriates who are registered with the ministry would be brought home as part of the Vande Bharat Mission.
“A mammoth total of 1.9 lakh names from Kerala have been registered in the portal. We will bring back all of them and have inducted Air India’s fleet for the purpose,” said Muraleedharan.
Dr B Rajeev, leading ayurvedic physician, described Kerala’s surveillance mechanism as the secret behind the successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic. “Years ago, the Government of Kerala had appointed Dr T Jacob John, professor of virology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, as the chairman of a high power committee of doctors to fortify the State from contagious and infectious diseases. The strategy is paying off now because Prof John has put in place a network of surveillance with which any aberrations in the public health would be known to the Taluk, District and State level medical fraternity,” explained Dr Rajeev.
Except for an oversight by the medical team posted at Kochi Airport which resulted in a few passengers from West Asia jumping the security cordon and escaping to Kasargod, the entire scanning and scrutiny operations were foolproof in the State. The State Government has arranged quarantine and isolation facilities at the international airports at Kochi, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur and has finalized an action plan to ensure that their would not be any shortage of beds and facilities for the incoming passengers. The flights too have been scheduled in such a way that those who return to the State would not face any difficulties for want of space. Hundreds of doctors and para medical staff have been deployed in the airports to make Vande Bharat Mission a smooth operation.
The kind of work being put up by P M Basheer, a municipal councillor in Perumbavoor speaks volumes about the involvement of a people’s representative in countering the pandemic.
“There are 400 houses in my ward and I have been tasked as a nodal officer to ensure that all senior citizens in the ward got medical care. Similarly, we prepared a list of people in the ward who were put into trouble by the lockdown which affected their livelihood. It was my responsibility to see to it that they and their families get three square meals a day during the ;lockout,” said Basheer, an activist of the SDPI.