The Kerala government has given the police department more responsibilities in implementing the COVID-19 containment measures. This includes marking containment zones, tracing contacts of patients and ensuring quarantine regulations, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said during a press meet on Monday.
At present, tracing primary and secondary contacts of COVID-19 patients is being done by Health Inspectors. As the police takes over, a team will be deployed in each police station under the aegis of sub inspectors.
“Taking into consideration the increasing transmission of COVID-19, this responsiblity is being given to the police. Within 24 hours, primary and secondary contacts should be found,” CM Pinarayi said.
The police will also actively participate in aiding the district administration and Disaster Management Authority to find and mark containment zones.
The government also gave full responsibility to the police force in ensuring that people in quarantine strictly follow regulations. “Incidents of violation of physical distancing and quarantine norms are again being repeated. Focus will be given by police in maintaining physical distance at hospitals, markets, houses where weddings and funerals are held, etc,” explained the CM.
Kochi city Police Commissioner Vijay Sakhare has been appointed as the state nodal officer in giving directions and advice to other district police chiefs to implement this.
Meanwhile, with 962 people testing positive for the coronavirus on Monday, a total of 11,505 people are under treatment in the state. The death toll has risen to 85 with two more people having succumbed to COVID-19.
Kerala has also decided to change the criteria in marking a containment zone. At present, wards in local bodies are completely marked as containment zones, based on the presence of COVID-19 patients or their contacts. But henceforth, containment zones will be more localised, with only specific parts in a ward being declared so.
“Those in containment zones cannot go outside and others cannot come inside. If there are difficulties for families in getting essential items, police officials or police volunteers will help them,” said the CM.
More importantly, the duration of containment zones will not be fixed beforehand as it is done presently.
“Till it is ensured that the primary and secondary contacts in such areas do not have the disease, they will remain containment zones,” explained Pinarayi.
Meanwhile, the CM said that police headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram which was closed partially, following an official testing positive for the coronavirus, will be opened after sanitising the premises and buildings.
On Monday, the Kerala government opened 102 new family health centres across the state as part of Aardram Mission.
“This is a very significant progress. There were already 284 family health centres functioning in the state. With the new ones opened, there are now 386 functioning ones and this will be helpful in the COVID-19 preventive measures that we are taking,” said CM Pinarayi
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