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Kerala unveils dual strategy to neutralise community transmissions
Kerala CM has announced that two areas in the state capital have entered community transmission phase.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan reiterated on Saturday that community transmission of Covid 19 infection had begun at two places in the state capital while adding that 60 percent of all coronavirus cases in the state could be traced to local transmissions.
Vijayan’s statement comes on a day when Kerala reported 593 new Covid-19 cases and two deaths over the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 11,659 including 6,416 active cases under treatment. 173 fresh cases were reported in Thiruvananthapuram in the last 24 hours.
“Community spread of coronavirus has been confirmed at two places in Thiruvananthapuram. Everyone should strictly adhere to Covid-19 guidelines to break the chain,” Vijayan was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
On Friday, CM had named Poonthura and Pulluvila in Thiruvananthapuram as areas where community transmission of the disease had begun. He added that areas in the immediate neighbourhood of these places had also seen a rapid increase in the number of contact cases.
In the backdrop of community transmissions, State health minister K K Shailaja announced the implementation of “cluster care” method to bring the situation under control, according to PTI. The method essentially involves strengthening of testing, treatment and quarantining inside the identified hotbeds or clusters to prevent the disease from spreading beyond a particular area.
“We must keep in mind that the clusters are formed just before the community transmission,” Shailaja said in a release. A cluster is defined as an area that has witnessed an “unexpected surge in Covid-19 cases” The disease may be reported en masse in people who work or live in that particular area.
According to the health minister, there are 87 clusters including 70 active clusters in Kerala. The remaining 17 are contained clusters.
“Two of such clusters have reported community transmission and the people there need to cooperate with the health department,” she said.
Community transmission phase of the contagion is considered dangerous since it marks a stage, when tracing the source of a new infection becomes nearly impossible, leading to a very rapid increase in positive cases.
She also added that the strategy was to “break the chain” of transmission from one cluster to another by “thoroughly locking the clusters.” The minister called for more attention to containment efforts in coastal areas.
Thiruvananthapuram district’s coastal areas have been divided into three critical containment zones. According to an order released by the district administration, the zones will be kept under complete lockdown from 12 midnight of July 18 to midnight of July 28 for a period of ten days.
