Kerala reported three new coronavirus cases on Tuesday -- the first in the state in three days -- as it prepared to receive the first batch of expatriates from West Asia.
Four special flights are expected to arrive in the state on Thursday and all returnees will have to undergo at least one week’s quarantine in care homes arranged for them, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.
“Many of them are coming without tests there. So we can’t take any risk at this point. It would have been ideal if they undergo tests before taking the flights,” he said.
The Kerala government had been planning to send the returnees home after screening them and instructing them to stay in home quarantine for two weeks. But it dropped the plan after coming to know that most of them won’t be tested before they board the flights.
Minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan on Tuesday contested Vijayan’s assertion that the Union government was flying back expatriates from West Asia without any tests being conducted on them.
“I don’t know why he is indirectly blaming the Centre like this. On medical side, the standard operating procedure (SOP) is being prepared by the ICMR {Indian Council of Medical Research}. Its SOP came late in the evening and the CM ‘s version was based on some hearsay. We will bring back people only after tests,” he told HT.
{{/usCountry}}“I don’t know why he is indirectly blaming the Centre like this. On medical side, the standard operating procedure (SOP) is being prepared by the ICMR {Indian Council of Medical Research}. Its SOP came late in the evening and the CM ‘s version was based on some hearsay. We will bring back people only after tests,” he told HT.
{{/usCountry}}More than 400,000 people have registered themselves on a portal the state government launched last week for Keralites stranded in other countries, particularly in the Persian Gulf, who wish to return home. But the CM said the Centre had made it clear that such a massive evacuation was not possible at this juncture .
The CM said all three new Covid-19 cases were from Wayanad in north Kerala; they contracted the virus from a Chennai-returned truck driver who tested positive two weeks ago. Kerala has 37 active coronavirus cases -- those who are under treatment. Of 33,800 samples sent for testing, 33, 265 returned negative.