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The Vande Bharat mission of evacuation of expatriates has thrown up two fresh Covid-19 cases in Kerala and added significantly to the list of people under surveillance over the last couple of days. The two new cases belong to the first batch that arrived in Kochi from Dubai and in Kozhikode from Abu Dhabi on May 7 (Thursday). Both are natives of Malappuram district.
Arrival in batches
A second batch of 152 expatriates from Riyadh arrived in Kozhikode on Friday with 142 Keralites, eight from Karnataka and two from Tamil Nadu. There were 128 adults and 24 children, including 78 pregnant women on board. Of these, 114 were sent home and the rest were transferred to various Covid Care Centres. A third flight from Bahrain arrived in Kochi on Saturday with 181 passengers - 87 men, and 94 women of which 25 are pregnant, and 28 children under the age of 10. Of these, 15 from Ernakulam have been placed under surveillance at a Covid Care Centre.
In the fourth batch of evacuation, three flights from Muscat, Kuwait, and Doha to Kochi landed in Kochi on Saturday night. This was followed by the Samudra Setu Mission this (Sunday) morning, in which naval ship INS Jalashwa brought back 698 expatriates from the Maldives to Kochi. The State government has reiterated that it is in a state of preparedness to receive a flurry of expatriates touching land or reaching its shores and deal with any eventuality on the Covid-19 front.
29,930 persons under surveillance
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said here that as on Sunday, there are 505 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the state and 17 patients are undergoing treatment in different hospitals. With the return of the expatriates, from within (stranded in other states) and outside the country, the number of people under surveillance across the State has gone up to 23,930. Of these, 23,596 are quarantined at their homes and 334 are isolated at hospitals. Sunday alone saw 123 persons being hospitalised afresh.
“The new cases being reported is a warning to those coming back from abroad and other states to be on the alert. We need to strengthen our mitigation efforts and preventive measures,” Vijayan said. So far, 36,648 samples have been sent for testing and 36,002 samples have been confirmed with no infection. As part of sentinel surveillance of people in the high-risk group, 3,465 samples were tested separately and 3,231 samples have tested negative.
Entry passes must, says CM
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister reiterated that entry pass was mandatory to enter state through the border check posts along with the neighbouring states. He said this in the context of reported commotion at the check posts with people arriving no entry passes. The state was not in a position to receive them putting into huge risk the health of those within its side of the border, after having undergone great pain for more than 100 days to keep the Covid-19 virus at bay.
“People without the passes will not be allowed to enter; they will be sent back. Those who desire to come here should register through the Covid Jagratha Portal and start their journey only after getting the pass only. Based on the logistic requirement and crowd control, the government has put a limit on the number of people who can cross the border every day and passes are being issued accordingly,” the Chief Minister said.
Commotion at check posts
Till now, 54,262 passes have been issued and so far, 21,812 Keralites from other states have crossed the border. They enter the state through check posts at Inchivila in Thiruvananthapuram; Aryankavu in Kollam; Valayar in Palakkad; Muthanga in Wayanad; and Thalapady in Kasargod. Police have been deployed in strength to ease congestion. The incoming persons undergo a medical check-up and those without any symptoms are sent home for a 14-day quarantine. In case of symptoms, a PCR test is conducted and the concerned person transferred to a Covid hospital.
Four help desks are being set up across the country for the benefit of non-residents stranded outside the state. These are based at the Delhi Kerala House, Mumbai Kerala House, and the offices of Norka at Bengaluru and Chennai. Call centres will be set up in all these four places. Special non-stop trains would be run from Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai to the State. The Chief Minister hoped that the first train would start from Delhi to bring back stranded students on a date to be fixed soon.
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