Kerala partially shuts down as cases reach 14
Asks Centre to revoke DGCA circular seeking virus-free certificate from travellers
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala was in a state of partial shutdown on Wednesday as the number of new coronavirus cases in the state rose to 14 and the Left Front government urged the Centre to revoke a circular issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stipulating that those who return from countries where the disease has spread obtain a certificate to prove they are virus-free.
“It is highly unethical and uncivilized to ask certificates from people stranded in Italy and South Korea. How can you ask your people not to come to the country in such a trying situation? Some of these countries are overloaded with patients and it is difficult to obtain such papers,”chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in the state assembly.
The Opposition Congress supported his stance. The assembly is likely to pass a resolution on Thursday urging the Centre to withdraw the DGCA circular immediately.
Some of those stranded in Milan and Rome have posted videos narrating their plight. They said they had been forced to disembark from flights to India because the Indian government did not give aircraft permission to fly them back.
“We are without food for last two days as all outlets at the airport remain closed. Among stranded are pregnant women and small babies,” one of them said. They said they were ready for quarantine at any place and expressed concern that they had been denied entry into their own In Delhi, minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan criticised the Kerala government, saying it was playing politics in trying times. “The entire country is in a battle mode. How can we take suspected coronavirus patients and others on a single flight? Chances of transmission are high. We will send a team of doctors and segregate and fly them back,” he said, adding that Indian embassy officials were in touch with the stranded passengers.
State health officials said that among 14 positive cases in Kerala, the condition of two, the grandparents of an Italy-returned man , who dodged health officials at the airport, was serious. State health minister K K Shailaja said doctors were trying their best to save the lives of the 85-year-old grandmother and 90-plus grandfather.
From imported cases to local transmission, the state with the highest density of population in the country pressed the emergency button after six cases surfaced on Tuesday.
The fresh cases forced the state government to cancel all public events and close down educational institutions to contain the disease. Shailaja called for strict community surveillance, scaling up of contact tracing and tapping local bodies to stop the spread of the disease.
The latest to test positive were the parents of a three- year- old Italy-returned boy admitted in an isolation ward in Kochi.
As many as 2,000 people are under observation; out of these 300 have been admitted to various hospitals. The state is keeping fincountry.
gers crossed as two dozen test results are expected by Thursday.
At least 42 people, who came from Italy, were quarantined in Kochi in the early hours of Wednesday. “We are fighting back with all resources available. What we need is cooperation of people. Two years back we had contained another dangerous virus, nipah, effectively. We will overcome this challenge also,” Shailaja said in the assembly.
The state had reported India’s first three cases of coronavirus in January this year. All three were cured.
Two years ago, the state experienced an outbreak of the nipah virus. Although it claimed 17 lives, the outbreak was localised and contained effectively.