New guidelines for quarantine, containment zones in Kerala

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Kerala has come out with new guidelines for COVID-19 related quarantine and redefined rules for declaring fresh containment zones as more people are expected to come to the state in the coming days.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, quoting experts, said the virus would not disappearsoon, hence it was difficult to predict when the intensity of its spread would decrease.

So far, 2.19 lakh people have arrived in the state, of whom 38,871 (17.71 per cent) were from abroad and 1.80 lakh (82.29 per cent) from other states and 63.63 per cent from the red zones.

As 63.63 per cent of those returning to Kerala from other states are from the red zones, the quarantine guidelines are being revised as per the recommendation of an expert committee,he said.

As per the new guidelines, those coming from abroad cango home after giving an affidavit. But they have to strictly follow the quarantine conditions failing which police would take legal action againstthe violators, he said.

The local self-government institutions, police, COVID-19 care centre's nodal officer, district collector and other officials would be intimated about the decision and alerted before the person starts from the airport and the officials would follow up on whether the person has reached their respective home quarantine.

The local self-government bodies should ensure that there are necessary facilities at home for quarantine,he said adding: Institutional quarantine was only for those who do not have such a facility at home.

Paid quarantine is for those who opt to stay in hotels. The Chief Minister announced some changes also for the definition of the containment zones. The zone would be notified before midnight.

In the panchayats, the containment zone may be declared at the ward-level and at the sub-ward level in the Corporation.

They can be defined at the local-level based on the number of positive cases for people under quarantine, primary contacts and secondary contacts.

Initially, a containment zone was declared for seven days which can be extended after review by the district Collector, Vijayan said.