Kerala: Doctor’s Association urges state govt to enforce restrictions in specific micro-containment zones

The Kerala government doctors’ association asked the state government on Tuesday to rigorously enforce the Covid measures, which include a 17-day quarantine for infected people and meticulous contact tracing, as the state continues to register the highest number of cases in the country. The Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) made a further plea to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, requesting that limits be placed in particular micro-containment zones to curb the virus’s spread.

“Time-tested strategy of contact tracing and isolation which ensured an effective control during the first phase must be followed. Contact tracing must be entrusted to local RRT with the help of the workforce from other non-essential services. All positive cases must be quarantined for 17 days,” KGMOA said in the memorandum.

“Those with Covid like symptoms must also be quarantined even if tested negative on Antigen testing and RT-PCR repeated if symptoms persist,” it added.

The association also said that the restrictions should be imposed in specific micro containment zones like wards, rather than the whole panchayat/municipality/corporation.

“Present strategy of categorising areas based on TPR alone should be replaced by indicators like daily positive cases per 10,000, active cases per 10,000 along with TPR”, KGMOA said.

The association also urged the state government to set targets and criteria for testing to reduce TPR should be avoided. “Purpose of testing should be to identify cases rather than creating a false sense of security. So targeted testing of all symptomatic and their contacts must be the rule. More effective surveillance and testing must be done in thickly populated areas like colonies, coastal areas etc,” it said.